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Geelong West’s Michelle Dickins finds joy in helping people preserve their memories for future generations. With free biography program Beyond Words expanding to Geelong, Jena Carr speaks with Michelle about what she enjoys about writing the history and lives of the region’s older residents.
Michelle Dickins, 56, describes herself as a “hobby writer” who loves to share the stories of Geelong’s older residents with their families.
The Geelong West woman has been a volunteer biographer with not-for-profit organisation Beyond Words, working with aged-care residents across Geelong for two years.
Michelle said she started writing about people’s lives after watching a television documentary about the benefits of a biography program for people living in aged care.
“My parents have both written memoirs, and they have been wonderful for the family to read,” she said.
“Too often, we hear about a loved one’s remarkable life at their funeral, and then it’s too late to find out more.
“I believe everyone has a story worth hearing, but not everyone has the opportunity or ability to write their own life story.
“When COVID was happening, I felt a lot of empathy for people in aged care during that time and I did think about how as a society, we could improve the experience for people in aged care.”
The process of writing biographies is different for everyone, but for Michelle, it begins with an hour-long meeting with a person once every six to eight weeks.
“We don’t ask a lot of prompting questions as it’s not an interview. It’s more like asking them where they would like to start,” she said.
“Sometimes they need prompting, and we might ask questions to expand on the information they’ve given us, but the idea is that they do the talking, and we are just there to record it and listen.
“We record their session on a voice recorder, and for roughly every hour they speak, there are about four hours of transcribing. So, it’s quite a bit of a time commitment.
“Usually, we transcribe within that week, and then the following week, when we see them, we read through their spoken words and check in with them around the spelling of names and places.
“We also confirm that the information they’ve given us is what they want to include in their biography. Sometimes, it can be a bit sensitive and might impact or involve other family members.
“At the end, it’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle because memories can trigger other memories, which don’t always happen along a timeline.
“Our intent is to lightly edit the information they’ve given us and rearrange it so that it all flows. We don’t change their words, so if they’ve used a particular word, we will use that word.
“When somebody like a family member reads that biography, we want the biography to be read in the voice of the client. It’s all first person, so it’s as if that person has written the biography.”
Michelle finds that writing biographies put her life “into perspective” and that it was a rewarding experience to delve into people’s lives to share their stories with their loved ones.
“We hear bits about people, and we might know some parts of a person’s life, but we don’t often have the opportunity to hear someone’s complete life story,” she said.
“I love the conversations I’ve had with clients, listening to their story, and I feel that not many people have the opportunity to listen to someone’s story in its entirety.
“It is a great privilege to listen to and record someone’s memories…and for the older person, reflecting on one’s life and memories can be cathartic and self-affirming.
“It has given me greater insight into the lives of older people living in aged care and helps me feel grateful for the experiences I have had and the relationships I have formed during my own life.
“Their experience of growing up was very different to my own… We’re talking about people being born during the war and the things that they did and that they didn’t have, which is so interesting.”
When Michelle isn’t writing biographies, she works as an outreach maternal and child health nurse in Geelong while maintaining time for what she enjoys.
“I write short fiction, I do a lot of reading as I’m an avid reader, and I grow vegetables in my little vegetable patch. So, I keep myself pretty busy while also working part-time,” she said.
“I’ve planted all my summer veggies, so I planted my zucchini, corn, broccoli and lots of veggies. That’s my happy place in the veggie garden.”
Beyond Words recently expanded to Geelong to provide free biographies written by trained volunteers to people living in aged care across the region.
Chairman Richard Hill said the program was always looking for more volunteers like Michelle as biographies helped humanise, empower and “make older people (feel) less invisible”.
“It allows them to reflect on and celebrate their lives and also has a positive impact on carers and families,” he said.
“While we are fortunate to have trained biographers in the Geelong region, we hope to recruit many more to meet the big demand for biographies in this area.”
Michelle said she encouraged anyone interested in writing biographies to “do it” as Beyond Words was “a really lovely organisation” that matched the client with the right biographer.
“With a couple of biographies I have done, the aged care staff have, with the client’s permission, looked at them,” she said.
“The biographies give the staff an understanding that this client has had a life and is a person, not just a room number. So, it helps in aged care to know more about the client.
“Beyond Words are also as much for the client as they are for the volunteer. They look after their volunteers and their expectations are only what you can provide or do.”
Visit beyondwords.org.au or email info@beyondwords.org.au for more information or to express interest in volunteering with Beyond Words.
