Reflections of a lifetime

Retired nurse Nancy Belouin joins Barbara to talk about writing her life story as a legacy for her children and why she's already at work writing her second life story book.

Nancy used DIYBook to write her life story, where the prompts help writers reminisce about their past and engage in personal reflection. The online writing platform is easy to use and has tips to help writers like Nancy start and complete a rewarding and fulfilling project.

Notes:

🙌 Nancy is an 80-year-old widow who decided to write her life story as a gift to her children. 1:49

✅ How a friend's experience writing her life story inspired Nancy to do the same: 2:19

❗ Don't miss an opportunity to write down family histories 3:00

💜 Propmts can be helpful, but Nancy was very organized as well. 3:35

👉 Nancy keeps her project a secret from her adult children, and their reaction was priceless 4:40

🍫 Memories are fleeting, but most people don't take the time to contextualize those memories by writing them down. 6:30

🧡 Writing is therapeutic for the grieving process 7:15

💜 Special memories come back that were forgotten, such as Nancy's childhood visits to her French-speaking grandparents in Maine 7:50

🧡 Nancy referred to photo albums to help remember stories 10:30

💜 Emotions could be happy or sad, depending on the story, but Nancy aimed to keep the story light and upbeat 12:00

✅ Special family memories of Christmas 12:52

🧡 Nancy enlists a son-in-law to help her add pictures to the book and keep the book a secret 14:44

💜 Nancy starts her second book, dedicated to her husband's life, whom she met in high school. 15:17

🧡 The story of how Nancy met her future husband 15:56

💜 Nancy's 7 grandchildren read the book 19:09

🧡The DIYBook program made writing Nancy's life story easy and enjoyable 20:10