‘You can lose yourself in someone’s else’s life’

Legacy Program turns the life stories of participants into cherished books to be passed down to loved ones

We all have a story.

For journalists, that is a truism. We know if we talk long enough to any random soul a compelling story will emerge. It’s about asking the right questions and listening hard to the answers. And believing that everyone’s story is worth telling.

Yet many folks think they have no story worth sharing. They think their lives are ordinary. Even boring.

Making them see otherwise is the gift Alana Smith gives to the elderly who are coming to the end of their lives.

As a volunteer for 18 years at Rose Cottage, a community hospice program in Grimsby, Alana has created the Legacy Program, through which the life stories of participants are turned into books to be passed down to loved ones.

“I just started asking patients and families if it would be OK for me to write a story about them,” says the 71-year-old former administrator for the City of Hamilton.

“I like finding out about other people and how they think and feel. You can lose yourself in someone’s else’s life.”

Blessed with an eye for detail and the love of a good story, Alana had to overcome some hurdles to become the biographer she is now.

She has dyslexia and could not make sense of the sentences she read as a child. For her, they were just a jumble of words.

“They didn’t go into stories in my brain.”

Her husband helped her to find ways to unscramble those words and Alana not only became an avid reader, but a writer.

When her mom died in 1994, Alana and her nine older siblings shared memories of their mother’s life. Each had bits and pieces to contribute but Alana realized there were gaps only her mom could fill. Still, she used her family’s remembrances to create a book about their mother.

Later she began offering her storytelling to the patients she was meeting through Rose Cottage. Some patients are palliative, others are not. They can be in a hospice, at home, in hospital or a nursing home. When Alana visits, it allows the usual caregiver to step out for a bit, giving them a welcome break.

Alana developed a list of 133 questions to guide the story process. She asks patients who are well enough to answer them in writing first. Then she sits with them — for hours spread out over two or three months, usually — to flesh out the story.

“And maybe hold their hand while they’re telling it,” she says.

The questions include lists of favourites, like games, food, colours, teachers and flowers. She asks who their best friends were when they were little and do they still know each other now? But the question Alana likes best for those who married is “How did he/she propose?”

She loves a good romance. “A lot of the people are dying and they know it and they want to leave special stories behind for their children and grandchildren,” says Alana. “Some of them are hesitant at first. They don’t think their life was interesting. They’re just an ordinary person.”

Alana puts a lot of work into her legacy books. She does an interview and takes notes, conducts online research to check birth, death and wedding dates. She sorts through photos provided by the family. She writes and edits and then shares the story with her subject before having it all printed and bound and given — free of charge — to the family.

Each legacy book runs between 27 and 30 pages and includes about a dozen photos. A digital version of the book is also given to the family.

“It’s so much more than genealogy,” says Alana, who has now trained 15 other volunteers to write legacy books through Rose Cottage.

Last week, Alana was presented with a Champion Award by the Ministry of Health for her innovative project.

To inquire about the Legacy Program, call 905-309-5071.

It’s so much more than genealogy. ALANA SMITH