Emily's Book

"Emily's Book" is officially finished. (I have been calling it that for the last 6 months) It should be coming in the mail tomorrow or Wednesday, when I will quickly read through the entire thing and fix typos than order another copy to be published just in time for her 90th birthday. I am beyond excited to give it to her. This post is just a summary of the process of creating the book and my thoughts on my feelings about being the one who had the honor to 'catch' these stories and preserve them.

I think it's safe to say that Emily Cottingham Stuart is one of my best friends. So often when we think of service involving the elderly we view them as so one-dimensional - never really taking the time to discover their unique personalities and souls. One thing Bob and Emily have taught me is that it is possibly for old age to be an enriching, full-of-life experience. Aging does not have to be a slow decay of passion; it can be a fun, exciting time for making plans and following dreams.

One of Emily's dreams has been to have her stories recorded. In March of this year, she was facing severe delusions and depression and felt a sense of urgency to have her memories captured in case she truly ran out of time. Within days, Bob made sure her hopes were fulfilled when he arranged for me to interview her. Together they wrote up an outline of their lives - where they moved, friends they made, citizens groups they were involved in, etc so that she wouldn't forget anything too important. I spent 4 hours over the course of 2 days sitting at their kitchen table storycatching. Everything was recorded onto cassette tapes which the Stuarts entrusted me with. Just having the words out left Emily relieved.

Despite my excitement at the beginning of the project, it didn't take long for me to dread the actual "typing of the stories." Emily spoke softly which made it difficult to transcribe without having to stop, rewind, and replay again and again to be completely accurate. 4 hours of cassette tape recordings probably took about 20 hours to actually transcribe - and I did most of those 20 hours in 10 -minute intervals or so. At some point during the technical side of things I lost the love for the stories.

In the last few weeks, I realized that if I was going to have the book published in time to be Emily's birthday gift (on November 2) I would have to send it out rather quickly. In a week I did lots of punctuation editing and formatting - but also at some point during the last week I fell back in love with her stories. I realized again that her stories were her life... seems so obvious but I lost that for a little while. Her memories are her perceptions of events that happened to her and being able to put her words onto paper gave me the opportunity to learn more not only about her past but about her view of the world, her way of interacting with others, and her values.

I feel so honored that she trusts me with her memories. She has invited me into such a special place in her life and I can. not. wait. for the day she turns 90 and I can give her stories back to her in a form that she can go on to share with her children and grandchildren - who can continue to pass along the stories to future generations.