When Stella DiGeronimo’s grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, the Westport teenager spent a lot of time with him at his Southport facility.
She wanted to know more, about him and the other residents. That sent her down a rabbit hole of information.
Stella realized the importance of talking to senior citizens. The more she did, the more she understoo how much “nuance and depth” they had.
And the more she recognized the need to write down those stories.
Stella already had a lot on her plate. A senior 3-sport athlete — field hockey, and captain of both the ski and softball teams, as well as president of the Democratic Women of Staples — she nonetheless encouraged her friends Sammy Stevenson and Alex Price to join the new venture.
They found the Legacy Project. The national non-profit, which began at Tufts University, connects younger and older adults for multigenerational friendship and storytelling. Together they combat social isolation and loneliness, and document life stories.
There are about 70 chapters nationwide. Nearly all are at colleges; a few are in high schools.
The girls reached out to the Westport Center for Senior Activities. Nine Staples students — Stella, Alex, Sammy, Addison Dennett, Hayley Epstein, Mehmet Madigan, Emerson Menoni, Piper Salik and Ella White — were paired with older men and women.
Then the fun — the conversations — began.
Some students used scripts. Some asked about “themes” love, hardship, etc.) They met often, in a variety of settings.
Stella — paired with Penny Pearlman — just started asking questions about the older woman’s life. Things flowed freely from there.
When Penny’s husband died, she felt as if she’d lost her identity. So, she told Stella, she picked up flamenco dancing.
The idea came on a whim. She spent a month in Spain with a group of much younger women. And Penny does not speak Spanish.
“That was so inspiring!” Stella says.
From left: Stella DiGeronimo (center) with Penny Pearlman and Maggie DiGeronimo.
Each interview was recorded. Stella transcribed them all into a large Google doc. Every teen turned their interview into a story.
Another woman described her many years abroad, as the wife of a NATO diplomat. She had no official title, but she organized refugee operations at dozens of sites across Europe.
Other interviewees told other stories about their long, remarkable — and often untold — lives.
The result is a book: “The Art of Flying Anyway.” The Legacy Project takes care of all publication details, as it does for several books a year.
The title comes from something one of the interviewees said: a bumblebee should not be able to fly, but it does.
The cover — complete with bees — was created by the teens and seniors together.
“The Art of Flying Anyway” is available on Amazon (click here for details).
“This is really important,” Stella says. “Social media shows current information. But so much history is being lost or forgotten.”
It’s important to her personally, too.
“I got such a better grasp on life,” Stella says about the project.
“We’re taught that things are always linear, from point A to B.
“I realize now things don’t always go the way they’re planned. It’s more about how you react to things, that really makes up a life.”
(Stella thanks several key players who helped along the way, including the communities at The Residence, Maplewood at Southport, and the Westport Senior Center, including director Wendy Petty; The Legacy Project and co-founder and CEO, Arielle Galinsky, and Rozanne Gates, founder of The Legacy Project USA, an independent organization.)
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