Writing Memories Society
CONNECTION THROUGH STORIES
Our Mission
The Writing Memories Society is dedicated to preserving the stories and wisdom of seniors while fostering cross-generational connections and providing university students with educational and artistic opportunities.
Our Upcoming Book
We have gathered twenty incredible memoirs, each unique in its own way. Our interviewees have come from all different places and paths of life, and their stories represent what is important to them—their families, friendships, religion, career, or travels. Whether you want to indulge in adventures set in far away places, to know what it was like to live through a war, or to read about a great romance—we’ve got it all!
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Behind the Pens
Helena Almeida and Margret Rand started Writing Memories while they were in the second year of their undergraduate degrees at the University of British Columbia. We work with a wonderful team of volunteer writers and editors, all of whom are also university students or recent graduates. Volunteers come from various backgrounds, have many different interests, and have majored in disciplines ranging from English to Anthropology, Psychology, Classical Studies, Geography, and more. Altogether, twenty-three people have been involved in interviewing, writing, and editing the memoirs. Throughout this process, we work collaboratively: we have group meetings and writing circles to discuss the progress of the interviews and the writing of the stories.
Allan Thomas Munro,
one of our first interviewees, described his experience with Writing Memories:
“I must say, the idea of relating personal experiences was both intriguing and potentially very self-fulfilling. Here was a chance to relive all those moments that we all think about from time to time but never actually get the chance to speak about. My experiences with Nabila as an interviewer became, over the many weeks, extremely meaningful to me as we spoke and she recorded my memories. I was able to recall, at her prodding, dates that I had to dig out of old flying logs etc., bringing back a flood of forgotten incidents, stories and people, some with extremely deep and profound emotional implications. This has been a very important event for me, one I highly recommend to others of my “vintage”. Where else can you relive those olden days and have them recorded for posterity?”