Martha RascheApr 22, 20151 min"We're Authors"My Life Stories group continues to get together monthly to socialize and share more stories. I joined the group this morning at the local...
Martha RascheApr 13, 20151 minI am not my hairI am not my hair. I am not my hair. I am not my hair. ... Which is a good thing because my hair was cut and discarded yesterday. With or w...
Martha RascheApr 13, 20151 minTogether againAfter weeks of separation, the thumb and little finger of my left hand were able to touch each other last week on their own accord, witho...
By Martha RascheApr 13, 20157 minThe column I didn't anticipate writing: I have cancerMuch has happened in my life since I last wrote a post here two months ago. More quickly than you might relize I left the “a” out of “rea...
Martha RascheFeb 2, 20151 minMy mother, a lifetime of serving othersAt age 88, my mom received the annual Celestine Park Distinguished Service Award this weekend. That reminded me of a story she told me wh...
Martha RascheJan 28, 20151 min2 Vietnam veterans, 45 years laterWe are about halfway through the class I am leading at the Habig Center in Jasper. Each of the nine sessions is to be an hour long. I knew...
Martha RascheDec 15, 20141 minRemembering those who left us way too earlyWe completed another Life Stories class last week. As always, I asked the "graduates" to share anything they wanted from what they had wr...
Martha RascheDec 3, 20141 minRehabilitation on the sideI have two Life Stories classes going on. Of the four women in the room during one recent session, three of their fathers had worked for ...
Martha RascheOct 7, 20141 minAnother reason to write your storyA 95-year-old woman who wrote her life story with me shared the story with her family. Her son, who is a doctor, pointed out that she had...
Martha RascheOct 2, 20141 minAccepting changeOn the day before her home was going to be auctioned last month, 90-year-old Helen said she was OK with the impending sale “because I know...
Martha RascheSep 25, 20141 minKnowing your prioritiesOn a bright sunny day in August 2014, an 87-year-old woman sits at a small table in her room at a Jasper nursing home and jots notes on a...
Martha RascheSep 3, 20141 minAmazing GraceSome of the questions asked during a recent class referred to memberships, including church affiliations from childhood. One octogenarian...
Martha RascheAug 28, 20141 minSheet of paper not handy? Write your story on a bedsheet insteadWriter Elisabetta Povoledo had a story in The New York Times last week about the National Diary Archives Foundation in Pieve Santo Stefan...
Martha RascheAug 20, 20141 minTelling a story without wordsI think I'd recognize these hands — never idle — anywhere. The beautiful and telling wrinkles, the raised veins so close to the surface o...
Martha RascheAug 14, 20141 minBlue suede shoes and other notesWhen senior citizens start talking about their lives as young adults, the stories get really interesting. I find out how they met their s...
Martha RascheJul 8, 20141 minYour story is worth writing, and sharingAs part of the "graduation" of the Life Stories class at St. Charles Health Campus yesterday, each of the participants shared part of her...
Martha RascheJun 16, 20141 minA class open to the publicMy next Life Stories class will be open to the public. It will start in July and will be held on Friday afternoons at Brookside Village n...
Martha RascheJun 11, 20141 minYour unique handwritingWhen this particular round of Life Stories writing comes to an end in another month or so, I'll likely type the stories that these women ...
Martha RascheJun 6, 20141 min"People like you"I stopped by the nursing home today to work one-on-one with some of my "students." I paid impromptu visits to a couple of others to see h...
Martha RascheJun 3, 20141 minMissing "some school"After a handful of weekly sessions with half-a-dozen women (most are in their 80s; one is in her mid-90s) whom I am helping to write thei...
