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Crossing Borders
Volume 7, Number 1 - Fall 2008
Seniors Nourish Mind
and Spirit Through Reading
by Stephanie Hanzel Cohen
Each week, Carolyn journeyed from her room in the “low-functioning” section of Morris Hall, an assisted-living facility, her electric wheelchair humming.
“It's nice to have a group that's intellectually stimulating. Most of the time, people are asleep next to me,” she said quietly after our first session. Discussing literature and being with seniors from the “high-functioning” wing of Morris Hall seemed to stoke Carolyn's sharp, analytical mind.
One day, I passed out copies of Milly Jafta's story, “The Home-Coming,” wondering what a Namibian mother estranged from her daughter might have to do with seniors living in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
Jafta's narrator, who returns to her family and village after forty years, laments, “How I have lost track of the time. How could I be expected to keep track of time, when I could only measure it against myself in a foreign land?”
I asked the group, “Has anyone ever experienced time in an unfamiliar way, like the mother in the story?” Carolyn nodded: “The mother couldn't measure time because everything felt different. It's like when you come here to assisted-living after living in your own home, everything feels different. Each day is like the day before it.”
Participants agreed: one did not have to leave a home country in order to have a “foreign experience.” In that moment, Carolyn found a kindred spirit in Jafta's character, a woman who could relate to her sense of displacement. That ability to find oneself mirrored in a literary character helps chip away at loneliness and isolation, as readers “read” themselves into the story.
Jafta's story also prompted Sister Mary to reminisce about her years in Bolivia as a contemplative nun; Hannah recalled the times she traveled with her husband when he was in the service. The opportunity to share experiences and memories is another consistent outcome of short-story discussion with seniors
In the same Morris Hall group, our discussion of “Raymond's Run” by Toni Cade Bambara led participants to consider the thing in life that made them feel most “like themselves.” Betty's face came to life as she talked about the garden business to which she and her husband had dedicated their lives.
Patricia Andres, executive director of People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos and frequent coodinator of the senior programs at Lawrence Plaza—funded, like the others, by the Lawrence Community Foundation— explained, “I looked forward to going to every session with the seniors…After my mother's death, they saw my loss and stepped forward in friendship.”
Lillian LaSalle, executive director of the Lawrence Senior Center, has witnessed the value of People & Stories both as the center's director and as a participant. “Most of our seniors love to read; most don’t anymore because of poor vision and lack of access to literature…The real key is the discussion that takes place after the reading. The seniors experienced that their opinions and thoughts were valuable.”
LaSalle also described an unexpected result of People & Stories. “One woman who seemed to have dementia became active in the discussion and was very assertive in her responses…not in an aggressive way, but she was just letting us know that she had a different opinion, and she was able to express it and be respected for it. That was a great moment for me to see. It was as if she was reclaiming something—perhaps her dignity!”