One can never be too old to write.
In fact, the writing group that meets at the Golden Hour Senior Center, every Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. is hoping this message will reach other seniors.
Writing group organizer Mary Anne Bocquin said she and Patsy Sorensen were writing together when they decided to ask the GHSC if they could write at the center once a week.
Soon, new seniors started to join them. Bocquin, who was a Green River High School English teacher for 34 years, is not new to the written word, but starting to write her own memoir is new. Writing is just in Bocquin’s blood.
“My father was a newspaper man and his father before him,” she said.
Both, Bocquin and Sorensen agreed that maybe someone else would want to write a memoir too, which is why they wanted a room at the center.
Sometimes, only two are in the room writing and other times, as many as six can be seen in the room working on memoirs.
“We enjoy each other’s company very much and we enjoy the writing,” Bocquin said.
Although attendees are encouraged to write whatever they want, they mostly stick to memoirs.
“Mostly it’s memoirs,” Bocquin said. “We are all at an age were we have stories to tell to our children and grandchildren.”
At the end of the session, which lasts from one to two hours, the attendees have a chance to share what they wrote during that session.
“It all depends on how much writing and talking we want to do,” she said.
Bocquin said they enjoy hearing and sharing each other’s stories. Sometimes just hearing another person’s story will jog the memory of an attendee and then they have another one of their own stories to add to their memoir. The group all lived through the same time period, and although their stories are similar they happened in different places.
The socialization is great and most of the group comes every week. Of course, there are times when some cannot make it.
“One of the things that we stress is we don’t have any teachers. We don’t critique each other’s work,” Bocquin said. “We just enjoy sharing.”
Each member of the group has a different technique for writing their memoir. Bocquin uses a journal, Sorensen uses a laptop and another attendee uses single sheets of paper.
It doesn’t matter what the memoirs are written on, as long as they are written, Bocquin said. Sometimes the group has to stop to figure out which word should be used in a sentence, but other than that they work quietly.
“It’s fun and we’ve grown very close; and we would love to welcome people to it,” Bocquin said. “Everyone has a voice and everyone has stories to tell.”
Anyone who would like to join the group and sit for a few minutes to see what they do or to share a stories is more than welcome to.
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