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Sheila Dunec will be teaching a 10-week course, titled 'Life Stories,' beginning Sept. 17 in Los Gatos.
Photograph by Paul Myers
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Every life's history is a story
By Shari Kaplan
As part of each session in her 10-week Life Stories series, instructor Sheila Dunec likes to share inspirational quotes and anecdotes. Among them is a thought from 19th-Century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard: "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward."
That's just what she'll teach Monday mornings from Sept. 17 through Nov. 19 during her latest Life Stories session, which meets at the Unitarian Fellowship of Los Gatos, 15980 Blossom Hill Road. Dunec originally offered classes through the Los Gatos-Saratoga Department of Community Education and Recreation, but later found it easier on her own.
More than just a memoir class, Life Stories uses detailed outlines, information and discussions to help participants learn to turn their memories into interesting and useful writings; to use genealogical research tools and to develop insights about their past, present and future.
The Palo Altan, who holds a bachelor's degree in English and a master's in counseling, got interested in this about 10 years ago, following a traumatic wake-up call.
"When my mother passed away, it hit me like a Mack truck that all this family history had been lost with her," Dunec recalls. "As part of my grief and guilt, I realized I'd never really acknowledged how much I'd learned from my mother."
She encouraged friends and family members to be more aware of their parents' and families' histories and to begin keeping records of meaningful things. "Many people have oral histories, family traditions and rituals and special recipes that have never been traced, or that have never been put down in writing to preserve them," she explains.
Eventually, she got classes in this vein added to the course selections at De Anza and Foothill Colleges, where she is an instructor. Waiting lists sprung up quickly, which led her to offer similar courses in the community. "I've stumbled into an unoccupied niche, one there seems to be a real hunger for!" she says.
One person who definitely whet her hunger is Saratogan Diana Zitman, who says Dunec's classes inspired her to trace her father's family to a small village in Ukraine, Russia called Novoselitza.
"I realized I had this major hole in my family history. In Sheila's class, I began to formulate plans for a trip," Zitman says, adding that her father, who left "the old country" amid turbulent times, never talked much about his past.
After much research, she located a cousin in Siberia, paid for his train fare to the Ukraine--he brought his daughter and granddaughter as well--and flew herself and her husband out to meet him last year.
"At the train station, I went right up to him. He looked so much like my father that I had chills up my spine. He said he too felt that there was something missing in his life that he feels is complete, now that he met me," she says. They keep in touch to this day.
Along with this most rewarding aspect of the class, Zitman says she also gained other rewards: "I found it very stimulating, and it's helped me with my writing skills. It's also almost like a support group; there's so much emotionality when you're going into your family history."
Cost is $75 per person for the 10-week course. To register, or for more information, call 650.324.9937.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
