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Book's short stories offer a snapshot of the past

By Shannon Burkey

Everybody has a story to tell. That's what Elizabeth Leonie Simpson found out when she moved into her new home in the Saratoga Retirement Community.

"Every time you sit down at the dinner table, you hear the most fabulous and moving tales," Simpson said. "These people are filled to the brim with their life experiences."

It was the extraordinary stories she continued to hear night after night that inspired the book Out of Our Lives, which was recently published and features short stories from 26 of the retirement community's residents.

The stories, short snippets into their long and unique lives, range from happy childhood remembrances to dealing with pain and tragedy to amusing moments. The authors, who hail from 11 countries and a variety of professions that ranged from paleontology and physics to art therapy and driving instructor, all have very different tales to tell. After hearing them, Simpson said she knew she wanted to get them out.

Although many of the people she talked to about writing for the book said they thought nobody would be interested, Simpson disagreed and sent out a notice to the residents of the community asking for their stories.

"Everyone here has a wonderful story to tell," Simpson said. "It's so nice to be older, because when you're 18 you might be handsome, beautiful or bright, but you haven't done anything or seen anything, and you have no stories to tell."

For some, it was their first attempt at writing, but others already had pages of their memoirs written down to share.

"Each one was very different, and when I began to read them I realized what a wonderful treasure trove we have," Simpson said.

The book took a year to complete, and Simpson, a former developmental psychologist who has published both fiction and nonfiction books, acted as its editor through the entire process.

The authors only had one guideline: "I said write about anything you want, except no sad stories about how awful it was to leave your beautiful home you've been in for 50 years," Simpson said. "We all gave up beautiful homes somewhere when we came here, so we all have that story."

Once the process began, more and more residents began to tell Simpson of other residents with amazing stories that needed to be included in the book.

"I was surprised at how many different stories we have here," she said.

Ken and Helga Hohne Hardy are two of the book's more experienced writers. The couple belongs to a weekly writing group and Helga Hohne Hardy has published a book on her experiences growing up in Germany during World War II.

"We were excited to do the book and we already had stories written up from our writers group," Ken Hardy said. "Helga's story was more serious; it's called 'The End of the World and My Childhood,' but mine is just a funny story about when I was 11 years old."

Linda Blodgett, another of the book's contributors, said she was surprised by the response the call for stories received.

"The stories just poured in," she said. "A lot deal with childhood and quite a few are from people who were refugees from the war. But they are all told from such different points of view and they're all so different."

The story Blodgett decided to tell was one she said changed her childhood. The tale chronicles a year she spent living in the Bahamas with her family as a 10-year-old. She talks of her adventures that year with a local boy who became a very good friend.

Shortly after her family moved from the Bahamas to Montreal, she found out the boy, who was her age, was shot in the head and killed by his father.

"Elizabeth asked for something we felt was significant in our lives. I had a lot of stories to tell, but I thought this was a turning point in my life. When he was killed, I felt my childhood was over," Blodgett said.

While some of the stories deal with life's difficulties, some are just reflections of fun, carefree times in the authors' lives.

When Lee Ann Wolf, who wrote a story about her teenage years, was first approached about the book, she said she didn't think she had any story interesting enough to tell.

"I told Elizabeth that I don't do fiction. I've had a pretty uneventful life," she said. "Then one day as I was cleaning out my closet, something came to me from when I was 16. I probably wouldn't have remembered but Elizabeth encouraged me to think about something, and now I've conjured up many more memories from my teenage years."

'Out of Our Lives' can be purchased at the Saratoga Retirement Community gift shop, 14500 Fruitvale Ave., or online at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. All of the proceeds will go toward the Saratoga Retirement Community's Living Legacy Fund, which was established six months ago to benefit the community's residents and facilities.