By Renee Wood
Everybody has a story to tell and a volunteer program is helping to do just that for people who are receiving end of life care.
Sharing your story can be a powerful and healing journey to help people going through palliative care.
Over the past five years, Ferntree Gully resident Steve Gurr has volunteered countless hours to sharing the stories of people who are receiving care with Eastern Palitaive Care within the Yarra Ranges.
Mr Gurr previously worked as a business consultant putting together budget responses and now uses his time to piece together biographies.
Talking little is Mr Gurr’s intention as he sits, listening and learning from clients as they discuss their life as it has unfolded.
Mr Gurr said he believes it’s more of an opportunity to allow the participant to speak and look back on their life.
“Generally, I go in turn on the tape recorder and they start talking and my only job is to stop them talking at the end of an hour or an hour and a half,” Mr Gurr said.
The volunteer holds six one hour sessions with each client and then further spends hours transcribing and typing their lives to paper.
Over the years the volunteer has written up to 16 biographies which average around 50 pages – pages filled with happiness, adventures and personal history shown through words and photos.
Mr Gurr reminisced on his time with one lady who wanted to create something her grandchildren can read later in life as their memories fade.
“She said, I want to write something for them not now but when they’re 10 or 12 thereabouts so when they will have forgotten of me. They’ll have some memories of me in the meantime, but they’ll dwindle – and I want something that they can use to remember me when they’re in their early teen years.
“That book ended up being mostly pictures with just little vignettes of text to identify who was in the thing and what the circumstances were… and I recon that’s one of the best biographies I’ve been involved with and all of that was driven pretty much by her.”
During Covid-19 lockdowns Mr Gurr found it was difficult to build a report through Zoom and phone calls but his intention to continue never wavered.
Mr Gurr said you get a sense of achievement upon completion when handing over the finished biography but the true reward is the process.
The journey is seen as a healing one as the writer said he notices signs of relief exuding from clients.
“Many of the clients suffer a lot of pain obviously with their illness, and you can almost see the pain lifting off their shoulders, as they start talking and reminiscing.
“A lot of them that have labored breathing and their breathing seems to miraculously become a little easier just for that period of time.
“So in my mind, there’s no doubt that you’re giving them a bit of a respite from the physical pain as well as from the mental side of going through the process of moving towards your death.”
Most clients feel as though they don’t have a story to share in the beginning but it’s a highlight when the sentiment that everyone has their own story rings true.
“A lot of people when you first talk to them, they say, oh, we haven’t got a very interesting story – but then every single one of the people that I’ve worked with, their stories have been really, really interesting. Even though they probably didn’t think it was.
“Everyone has an interesting life, it’s just a matter of getting it out getting it on paper.”
Mr Gurr encourages anyone who’s willing to put pen to paper and listen to clients to look into volunteering their time for the EPC biography program. Full training is provided to those interested.
“Just seeing that burden of pain and tiredness and all that lift from people during the session, that’s what makes it all worthwhile for me, that’s when I feel like I’m providing a really worthwhile service for that particular client,” he said.
