Harvesting stories. Preserving a lifetime.

“When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground,” the ancient saying goes, because older adults and even younger women and men and children have much to teach us about life and ourselves if we provide ways for their wisdom to be shared.

Dr. Lyndall Hare used those words, “When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground,” when she explained the proverb from her native South Africa over coffee one morning in the basement of a once vanquishing but now thriving intercity church. Dr. Hare is a harvester of stories, and who is better at the role than a Ph.D. Gerontologist?

So it’s to her that I owe a tip of the hat for helping me understand that if I didn’t want my stories lost, I’d better start writing them down.

Thanks, Lyndall.