Extraordinary person. Ordinary People and their Extraordinary Stories.

~ Live & Learn

goose-chronicles

I’m rushing to catch the elevator. I’m late for my next meeting, and busy replaying the outcome of the last. I step into the building lobby and run into a colleague.

JQ: Hey, Dave. Do you have a minute?

DK: Running late, but of course.

JQ: I wanted to share an idea and get your thoughts.  I know that you’ve been blogging for some time. I’ve been thinking of doing the same. I visit assisted care living facilities (ACLF) on weekends and write stories.

DK: Write stories?

JQ: Yes. Many of the people I meet are ill, lonely and rarely visited by family. They look forward to speaking to me. I meet them all in person. Some interviews take 5 hours. Some 30 minutes. I take their picture. All with their consent or consent of a family member.

As he describes his “hobby,” I take an inventory of recent posts: Snoopy. A cat video. Hyperrealistic painting of lady in bath tub eating cake. OMG. 

JQ: It’s a shame that their families often don’t know their life stories. I memorialize it for them.

And the week before, I posted a cookie recipe, ranted about my weight, and b*tched about being in a rut.

JQ: One day I sat next to an Alzheimer’s patient who was unable to speak. His wife told me he was the most compassionate man she’d ever known but now all anyone saw was a man slumped in a wheel chair drooling on himself. I asked her if I could write a story to capture her husband’s compassion and by doing so, memorialize a part of his life and humanize him to other residents and caretakers. And this idea was born.

JQ: My stories have spread by word of mouth at the ACLF. Now when I come in on the weekends they say: ‘the writer is here!’  I work with the volunteer coordinator at the ACLF to meet two residents each weekend. I am also looking into sourcing people through services that reach out to the home bound to keep them company.

Earlier in the week, JQ had reached out to me to ask if I wouldn’t mind introducing my Followers to his work and his site.

Please take a moment to visit his website and read his stories. You’ll be happy that you dropped by.

His web site is titled: Goose Chronicles.

You can also find his stories on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter.

The tag line for his site is Ordinary People. Extraordinary Stories.

And I would add, covered by one extraordinary young man.

Photo: Photo of Marty taken by JQ. Marty is a resident at the ACLF. Marty is currently suffering from late stage Alzheimer’s disease.

36 thoughts on “Extraordinary person. Ordinary People and their Extraordinary Stories.”

  2. thank you for sharing this! I’ve just had a look his website now, and found it blissfully heartwarming. JQ – was making sure their lives reached out & touched others, that they weren’t forgotten. I love it. again, thanks.

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  5. Such a great idea. I’ll happily visit his site. My hometown in PA. celebrated a centennial this past weekend. They featured a video of a 100 yr old man discussing the town’s heyday in the 40’s and 50’s. It was captivating. ☺

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  8. All of this made me want to cry. What a wonderful man this is. You too David, with your blog posts of cake and creepy women…you make us all smile and cry too. It’s giving of one’s self with no expectations of anything in return that makes this world better for all of us. Thank you to both of you, two extraordinary men.

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  15. Like Karen, I’m late to this party, but no less appreciative. A *beautiful* thing he’s doing–I think often of the wonderful stories and history we are losing each and every day. But as others have said, don’t denigrate *your* work either, DK. You alternately enlighten, inform, amuse, challenge, provoke and entertain your readers every day and I’m quite certain that I”m not alone in saying that, were ‘Live and Learn’ to go dark, I’d feel the void keenly….

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  18. Reblogged this on sherriemiranda1 and commented:
    Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease, but one thing my in-laws discovered was their mother loved music and music sparked her memory of other moments in her life. I met my mother-in-law in the last eight years of her life, but she always remembered my name and she loved coming to my house. Angelo would play her the music she loved. He even took his keyboards to the home just 2 blocks from our house & he played for her right up until the end.
    Find out what music the Alzheimer’s patient listened to. And bring that music to him/her.
    A very wonderful way to remind people who they were. I would love to be part of a project like this. It is a tribute to the entire family!
    Peace & blessings,
    Sherrie
    Sherrie Miranda’s historically based, coming of age, Adventure novel “Secrets & Lies in El Salvador” is about an American girl in war-torn El Salvador:
    http://tinyurl.com/klxbt4y
    Her husband made a video for her novel. He wrote the song too:

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