Page 41 - Storytelling - Storylistening

X. Publish or Perish: “I, Witness to History” Preserves Residents’ Life Stories in Race with Final Deadline
Putting Elders in Control
“Of all the losses that come with old age, I’ve come to realize the greatest is loss of control,” says Asla. “IWH is one place where they are in control.”
Elders retain the copyright, determine story content and control the time line for creating the book or recording. The biographical interviews are therapeutic and may take from a few weeks to a few years to complete – a full three and a half years in one case.
Some residents need more time than others to bask in the company of someone who listens appreciatively without judging, explains Asla. “You can tell when there is still more personal fulfillment needed because they will say things like, ‘I thought of something else to add’ or ‘I’d like to change this’.”
It is also important to know when to wrap up: “We found out the hard way to heed those who have premonitions of death and are pushing to finish their book, even if they appear in good health,” he adds. The interviewer’s job, says Asla, is to listen attentively without interjecting and ask questions from a reader’s perspective on subjects that need elaborating.
The key ingredient for successful interviewing is to genuinely like and be interested in people, he says. “You can’t fake it because people catch on pretty quickly.”
Establishing rapport is much easier if the interviewer and interviewee are of similar age, sharing the language and experiences of a generation. “There’s a little more trust if there is some grey in the hair of the interviewer,” says Asla.
He tells how middle school students once interviewed a group of Larksfield Place residents about the dust bowl of the 1930s:
One of the residents said, “You know, the drought was so bad in western Kansas that we had to list our fields.” Unaware the man was referring to a Lister plow that corduroys fields – “lists them” – to prevent erosion, one child raised his hand and asked, “Do you mean you put them on eBay?”
The English language is changing so quickly, says Asla, phrases like “list the field” from only a few decades ago no longer have meaning in current culture. Part of IWH’s mission is to preserve outdated phrases as a key to unlocking a better understanding of the time period.
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