Stephanie Kadel Taras wrote her first biography about her grandmother. “We spent three days together, sitting quietly in her living room as she reminisced about childhood days, her parents’ relationship, her caregiving roles, her husband’s death, and her life of faith,” Taras recalls.

The result was her grandmother’s life story “as a book that the whole family could appreciate,” she says.

 This past September,Taras, a personal historian, biographer, lecturer, and author, began teaching a memoir writing class at Fox Run, sponsored by Y.O.U. (Your Own University). In the class, residents learned how to write their own life stories to share with generations to come.

“We all have stories to tell,” Taras says.

Group gets the writing bug
The class took shape when Taras spoke to members of Fox Run’s genealogy group, according to Gae McCord, a resident who heads up Fox Run’s Y.O.U. Her talk sparked an interest in the subject of memoir writing.

“[Taras] spoke to the group about preserving memories for their children,” McCord says. “After the class, from what I heard, everybody went to their computers and started to write.”

Soon after, McCord approached Taras about teaching such a class at Fox Run, and Taras obliged.

“We [Fox Run’s Y.O.U.] aim to please,” McCord says, adding that she signed up for the class at her daughter’s suggestion. “My daughter put that bug in my ear: ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to do?’” she says. “It’s a way of preserving what kind of person you are.”

Preserving personal history
One resident, Bertyl Reis, is taking the class to rewrite a memoir she already completed.

“Her family said it was a bit too impersonal,” McCord says. Reis wants to take the class to improve and expand what she’s already created.

“[Taras] will give us instructions to help guide us along the way,” McCord says. “We will all be asked to write something between classes.”