A former journalist turned lawyer, a counselor, and a contented grandmother found a common ground in words that speak of their deepest feelings and truth amid these uncertain and trying times.
Prior to the pandemic, Dina Lucenario began writing fond memories of two men she admired most, her father and her late brother, Philippine Ambassador to Pakistan Ambassador Domingo Lucenario, Jr. who died in a helicopter crash while in service in 2015.
Lucenario, like many Filipinos at this time, again faced death and learned to come to grips with it with words.
The death of her nephew in March due to COVID-19 prompted her to write about him on Facebook but she found writing on the social media platform limiting and was afraid of how the people would react.
Lucenario, thus, turned into writing about her memories in a more intimate manner.
“I decided to explore memoir writing as a discipline. I can learn while I can still gather a lot of memories from my own memory bank and from those of my mother, who is now 90 years old, and other family members,” said Lucenario who shares that “writing has made her rethink about becoming her family’s unofficial chronicler.”
Lucenario added, “Perhaps later I can also write about friends and other people who have made an impact on my life. Writing my memoirs is like a good shot in the arm that makes me happy, although writing itself is a tedious activity.”
The partner of a law firm is one of the participants of the Sunshine Place: Senior Recreation Center Memoir Writing Workshop conducted by award-winning short story writer, educator, and Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas Awardee, Dr. Oscar Peñaranda.
Her batchmate, Len Fernandez, is a lover of words. She loves reading, watching movies, and even doodling and daydreaming a world she wishes to write about someday.
Fernandez shared that it was her curiosity that made her join the memoir writing workshop. It proved beneficial for her in more ways than one.
“As a counselor, I deal with bipolar patients living with a mood condition, who have been emotionally affected by the pandemic. Our sharing sessions can be very heavy and emotionally taxing. This memoir writing class has given me an outlet to be able to debrief myself. It’s healing, it’s therapeutic,” Fernandez noted.
From the workshop, Fernandez realized that “writing is not just random words put together. There are techniques and rules that you need to follow to be a good and relatable writer. I need to make sure my readers feel what I feel, see what I see, and basically live vicariously through my eyes on paper.”
For Linda Atayde, memoir writing is a self-fulfilling wish about a phrase that has been going on at the back of her head.
“While here on earth, plant a tree, bear a son, and write a book.” The provenance of this phrase is unclear. Whether it was from the Talmud, a popular Russian proverb, or by Cuban revolutionary poet Jose Marti, Atayde said she has already fulfilled the first two and is now looking forward to the third to-do in the popular saying.
Atayde shared, “I only have two reasons—to make my story interesting enough for my granddaughters to keep on reading, and important enough for them to learn some life lessons.”
Catharsis and coping mechanism are among the beneficial effects of memoir writing, said Dr. Peñaranda. This is most helpful, especially for those who are in their waning years.
“Memoir writing is a reflective, courageous, and sometimes tedious, a journey to an incident, a scene, or a literary portrait,” explained Dr. Peñaranda.
It is neither an autobiography that is written in a chronological order, nor a diary that details a series of thoughts or observations or a journal that describes isolated events.
“A memoir is a window to the writer’s world. It is a flash or series of flashes unified by themes and characters told in pieces and storytelling fashion. It does not have to be in chronological order. The aim of the memoir writing workshop is to hone the skills of the students so that they will be confident enough in writing the greatest story ever told, their story,” he said.
The workshop is conducted every Thursday of September and October until the 14th. For details, contact (632) 856-4144/856-4162; (+63917) 515-5656 or email online.sunshineplace@gmail.com.