At the Angels Stadium, we invited people to share their life stories and wisdom at our Reminiscing Corner in the Hospice Care of the West booth. The event was called Celebrating Life over 50! Baby Boomer Senior Expo. At our seminar, I gave a behind the scenes look at video recording your wisdom to pass on to the next generations. Here are some of the selected inspirational moments from life story documentaries that we shared in the seminar. These life stories were video recorded by Jay Gianukos, a life story documentary filmmaker.
As I said in the seminar, you don’t have to be a dignitary or film star today to have a biography or life celebration that can preserve your personal history. When you reach a milestone like 50, 60, 70, and beyond, reviewing your life experiences, lessons, relationships and memories is natural. This looking back process is called a life review when you almost feel like your reliving a moment in the past or can see scenes from your life playing on a movie screen in the back of your mind. Sharing these experiences, your wisdom and personal history, are one of the greatest gifts that you can give to your children and grandchildren.
A life review can be tapped into with an interviewer who asks questions that begin with what is your earliest childhood memory and end with what are your hopes and dreams for your children and grandchildren. This life review interview explores your childhood, your parents’ history, your early adulthood, falling in love, wartime experiences, career, marriage, parenthood, retirement, grandparenthood and tomorrow. At the Reminiscing Corner, Jay Gianukos, the life story documentary filmmaker, video recorded folks. Below are a few moments that he selected to share with us.
Hospice Care of the West has a team of volunteers who video record interviews with patients reflecting on their life stories. The videos are edited with music and photos and then given to the family as gift. Hospice Care of the West also has a team of high school volunteers called the DreamCatchers who help patients and their families organize life celebrations and family reunions.