Gloria, Gogo, Norman, Beatrice (A Group Like Ours)

I feel like one of the loveliest parts of this project is that at every given moment in time, it is both larger than life and can be 
tucked right inside each of our hearts.


Pen. Paper. 1 hour a week. 1 table. And suddenly something big and
 beautiful started growing, and the bigger it gets, the more precious it becomes.

This is a big year for Best Day, as we gear up towards our national
 expansion. Our seniors and regular younger attendees have been writing braver stories than ever before: What advice can we give to others around the country who want to start a group like ours?

And to me, these stories are in some ways the most precious. The most tuckable. Words we can keep with us in our hearts and backpockets forever and forever.

 
For more Best Day advice and “secrets” email us at info@bestdayofmylifesofar.org to tell us what you'd like to know! Your questions will be instrumental in helping us create our first ever Training Guide, so you too can use storytelling to connect with others in your life. To get up to date progress on our guide, check out Facebook and Twitter.

 

Gloria Washington, Regular Attendee
And Daughter of Aileen Washington, Senior
2.28.2013
Our Advice to Others

Everyone has a voice and every voice is equally important in our circle.

What kind of person does it take to facilitate a group like this…
(MOST IMPORTANT) They can’t be a pedophile and didactic.
They can’t assume they are smarter or better than the group.
They must make no assumptions because of race, speaking style, or outward appearances.
They must not try to lead, only gently guide.  Senior citizens are very independent (often) and opinionated.  Do no treat them like pets or children, or the class will revolt.
Often the participants are savvier in way than the facilitator.  MUST BE a Democratic collaborative process!!


Gogo Jenny Williams
2.28.2013
Our Advice to Others

Anyone can sit around a table and tell stories. But our group is about more than just stories. There is a real interest in the people in the class. There’s a feeling of partnering among the group. You feel that you matter. There’s such excitement in sharing with the group. We’re in the same page in coming together.

Initially, I was a little unsure of what to expect, because I’m new here at the center. My best friend introduced me to the class. I fit right in.

We’re nudged to stay focused. So there is structure.

We encourage each other. I’m encouraged to write after I leave the structure of this setting.

It takes a special person to be able to lead a group like this. A person inspired to use their God given talent to meet the challenges of a diverse group of people. The ability to listen, the art of making each person a part of the group.

There’s a change in me. Now I’m waking up from a deep sleep called procrastination.

I’ve told my family they are quite pleased that I’m online. My stories are getting read.


Norman Cain
2.28.2013
Our Advice to Others

Our group is a meeting of the minds. It gives participants a vehicle that reveres storytelling – a given – that has been with us since the beginning of time. Hearing stories from around the world. I look forward to that. When I first came to the group, I was nervous. The feeling faded rapidly because the group was sincere and personal. During our hour of class we chat for 10 minutes, write for 15 minutes and begin to read. Sometimes conversations about various subjects ensue. At the end of class we take pictures and shoot videos.

Our program differs from other senior programs because it’s a democracy. While the final voice is that of Benita, there is no hierarchy. Anyone facilitating such a group needs the following qualifications:
    •    People person
    •    Organization
    •    Adept in Public Relations
    •    Dedication
    •    A facilitator must mediate projects, both long and immediate goals, and be prepared to meet continually possible funding.

This program has helped me tremendously. It is the first organization that I have been a part of in over 50 years. Even loners need talk that they can feel comfortable around. I now look forward to being around this group of people. The fact that our stories are being told world-wide via the web site makes me feel great because it is a way of dispelling myths across cultures and people whose age range varies.


Beatrice Newkirk
2.28.2013
Our Advice for Others

We are special because we are like a family. We are made up of different people. We feel close to each other. We learn from others.

Coming back every week is a blessing. Being away, we can’t wait until the next time.

I feel comfortable when I hear from other members. And I can’t wait to see new people and hear their stories.

We care and respect everyone. Everyone is welcome to our class.

The kind of person having a class like our writing class has to have experience and has to have been through something. That is our teacher Benita.

My daughter and family get a kick out of our class. They see our stories on the internet and sometimes it relates to them.

Our class is special because we are like a family.

Joan (The Most Beautiful Sights I've Ever Seen)

Last week, after “the announcement”, after the screaming and crying for joy, after Hattie said (direct quote) “Help me up on to the table... I need to dance!!” after we took our sweet time to go crazy, we calmed down and our senior buds resumed their usual routine of writing quietly and reading their stories out loud, one by one.  This probably doesn’t come as a surprise – there were quite a few pregnancy and childbirth memories shared around the table ;)

After reading, after the “calming down”, we needless to say went a little crazy again, telling even more baby stories off the top of our heads. After reading the truly beautiful story below, Joan started telling a whole other story altogether. Back in the day there was no way to google pregnancy symptoms, so Joan had no idea what she was experiencing… thought she had a hangover until her mom told her!

As I write this, I see our seniors helping each other up on to the table, dancing between super silly and super sentimental. Can’t you see it too? Don’t you love it too?

Joan Bunting
02.28.2013
The most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen

I have six children, two boys and four girls.  Henry 55 years old, Harold 53, Rose 49, Joanne 48 Joyce 46 and Teresa 45.

The most beautiful sight is when each of my little bundles of joy were first placed in my arms.  The next beautiful sight was when they smiled at me for the very first time.  The next time is when they called me Mommy, their first steps, and their very first attempt to put a sentence together.

Now they’re all grown up and have their own families.

I love my children very much and am very proud of each and every one of them.

They look after me now.  I’m not saying I see them every day, but they do call to check up on me to see if everything is all right. My daughters make sure I’m not in need of anything.

I still reminisce about how it felt the first time they were placed in my arms.

At another time, I’ll tell you about my grandchildren and my ever growing great grands.

God has blessed me in abundance.

The Announcement!!!

Today was a class like no other. I announced to my senior buds and our visitors that... I'm pregnant!!! Went awesome - I started crying, and the only words I could really get out was, "I'm pregnant!" I actually don't get nervous about much in life, but on my way to class I was so nervous to tell my favorite buds, I don't know why! I think it's because this was the moment I had been waiting for, for a long time. One of our volunteers, Thelma who is herself 79 years old, told me, "This baby is gonna be great-grandmothered and great-grandfathered to pieces." Oh yes, I am pretty sure Thelma's right ;)

The seniors' reactions? Oh, we've got that on video for you of course!

 

Norman (My Friend the Volkswagon)

No offense to sleek car commercials, but here is a tough little piece of leather we can all fall in love with!

This is a story about a special car, yes, about really it’s also a story about family, friends, and a special guy.

Norman is always paying attention to what others need, helping to get chairs for the ladies in class, helping Joe who can’t see get in and out of the elevator, making sure our young visitors are having a good time. Every time I glance over, I swear, he is helping someone else with something. Helping me is no exception. He stays after class every week to let me know if I’ve done ok that day leading the group. The pep talks he gives me gives me the energy to carry on through next week. And he’s quiet and modest about it, he just hangs out and chats with me while helping me scan his peers' handwritings and straighten up the room. He is not doing anything for attention or credit. He just does things. He is cool like that.

To me, this story is so Norman.  Like his friend the Volkswagon, he too is quietly super-fantastic, no matter whom you ask.

Norman Cain
1.31.2013
My Friend the Volkswagon

In 1968 I bought my first car, a dark blue with white interior Volkswagon from Townes Motors at 45th & Walnut Street.  I got it for a good deal.

It cost $1,950 and had three years to pay for it.  My monthly payment was $550 and my insurance was $145 per year.

My mother was amused with my car, my sister was noncommittal, and my younger brother, to my dismay, simply loved it.  And my father, like my friends, called my car a washing machine in jest, thought I should have purchased one of those almost limousine long automobiles that were in vogue at the time.  My wife, who convinced me to stop pinching pennies so hard and get a car, was elated.
After a few days with my car, a problem arose.  I let my brother (10 years younger, whom I had spoiled) take my car to school—Overbrook High, where he was on the football, basketball, and baseball teams, and the president of the student council.  The car would be the icing on his name as one of the “very important people” in the high school world.

He had a wreck, not too bad.  My insurance man was furious. 

As far as my friends, who laughed at my car, they had a change of heart when they saw how easily it maneuvered through things like snow and how it was excellent on gas mileage.  Gas mileage was the primary reason I was able to often take my family to New York frequently.  I also took them to Springfield, Massachusetts once. 

As far as my friends, they thought the car was theirs.  We went to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and New York.  My car was tough.  It got the job done.

It was really tough when its body was totaled in an accident.  My mechanic, who had actually worked in the Volkswagon factories in Germany, placed a 1954 body on the 1968 engine, and it still pushed on.

After five years with my car, I reluctantly sold it and moved to Atlanta, Georgia.

My Volkswagon, to use an old vernacular: “A little piece of leather, but well put together.”

Bernice and Joe (The True Kind)

Today, amid bright poppy red cards, cupcakes, outfits (and big red flowers… for those of us who like flowers in our hair… you know from our Facebook pics that our senior bud ladies and I are obsessed with those, right?) we celebrate the most precious kind of love. The kind the lasts forever and forever beyond entire lifetimes. The true kind. Happy Valentine’s Day – considering sharing this story tripledecker with your true love to remind them how much you love them today!

Bernice Moore
1.7.2010
My First Date

My husband was my sweetheart. We went to movies and parks and some days we went dancing. The best movies were Cowboys and Indians, and Gone with the Wind, and a lot of army movies. Going downtown and looking in the stores. Going to the zoo and looking at the animals. We did that too. I lived in South Philly. The movies were playing on North Broad Street. There was a drugstore we stopped on the way to get ice cream and cake. We met other guys and girls. Everyone was nice to one another.

PS. When the war came a lot of the guys went to the war. Some got killed. That was sad. My husband and I were married 60 years. He died Jan 1, 1993. I miss him very much.

Joe Garrison
7.19.2012
This Time of the Year

On the way to the Center today we picked up a passenger and we took her to the building where Debra used to work.  I haven’t been to the building since 2007, and it got me thinking about her.  July 28th was her birthday and she would have been 59 this year.  I am 69, 10 years older, actually 11 years older because my birthday is October 30th and I will be 70 this year. 

I get sentimental around this time of the year because things always remind me of her.  She passed away in November of ’08, four days before Thanksgiving.   Even the smallest things about our relationship still linger with me—the way she would hum a tune, the silly things we said to each other to make each other laugh, the places we would go, the hopes we had for our future together. 

Even when I dream about her, I remember her “seeing eye” dog.  (She was blind like me.)  Even animals can sense love between two people.  Her dog really liked me and I think it’s because it knew Debra and I were in love with each other.

To be continued…

Joe Garrison
8.2.2012
This Time of the Year, part 2

Even though Debra isn’t here physically anymore, I feel like because I write about her so often, that she is a part of this class…

In my previous story, I told about how we did little things to make each other laugh. I remember when she told me a dream she had, that I was driving her home from work. I, myself, have also had dreams about driving in a car (A lot of other blind people have told me they have had dreams of driving too.) In Debra’s dream, we were the only ones on the road. We both got a huge laugh when she told me the dream. I said I was driving Miss Debby. I don’t want to bore everyone with too many stories about Debbie, but I do want to make the point that what we had was not an affair, but a loving romance.

Mr. Robert (Valentine's Day from A to Z)

Valentine’s Day is only a couple days away, and our senior buds are so excited. Last week when I saw them in class, they broke into song, singing “Goodnight Sweetheart” at the top of their lungs.

They also invited me to a Seniors’ Valentine’s dance this Thurs, and that – I am pretty excited about. They are determined to me the Twist both ways, the kind where you swing your hips a little, and the kind where you really “just go for it.” Oh boy, they are so silly ;)

Well, what are we waiting for? Let our Valentine’s countdown begin – from A to Z!

Once we’ve shaken our silly bones, stick around for stories from Bernice and Joe about the most important word on the whole list. Love!

Robert Mitchell
2.9.2012
Valentine’s Day from A to Z

A-    Always and forever; A Cruise;
B-    Boyfriend, best thing that ever happened to me;
C-    Candy, chocolate;
D-    Diamonds, dinner, dancing;
E-    Entertainment, engagement ring;
F-    Flowers, fruit basket;
G-    Games, girlfriend;
H-    Husband, happiness, hugs;
I-    I love you;
J-    Joy, jealous, jewelry;
K-    Kisses;
L-    Love, loving you;
M-    Music, me, you and him;
N-    No means no, not tonight;
O-    Oh girl!!!
P-    Puppy love, poetry;
Q-    Quality, quote: “I’m not your daddy, I’m your ‘MAN’”
R-    Reasons that we’re here;
S-    Spontaneous, soul mate;
T-    Teenagers, the hunters;
U-    Under the moon;
V-    Victoria’s secret;
W-    Wife, wine, wedding day;
X-    Xtra Special;
Y-    Young and in love;
Z-    ZZZZZ (when the note is over)

Happy Valentine’s Day!