I’m visiting my 95 year old mother in a personal care home. My mother was a wonderful storyteller but now her mind is failing.\u00a0 She can no longer remember details, but when I mention a slice of a narrative she gave me many years ago, her mind clicks in and she remembers again. I don’t know if it’s sad or not, that this is how it ends for many. Fragments disappear slowly, until one day there is little left to share. Or are these just bookends in life? You start as a baby with little or no memory, and then at the end, there is just too much to process, and the mind collapses to nothingness once more. It’s just the way it is, if you live that long. It can be a beautiful thing, depending on your vanatage point. A kind of a clearing house.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m visiting my 95 year old mother in a personal care home. My mother was a wonderful storyteller but now her mind is failing.\u00a0 She can no longer remember details,… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88,4],"tags":[128,27],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-writing","tag-narrative","tag-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s1LuVB-stories","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7451,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2026\/books\/a-house-full-of-strangers\/","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":0},"title":"Book Launch of A House Full of Strangers","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"9 \u0422\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm pleased to announce the book launch of A House Full of Strangers: Based on True Stories. This short story collection, set in Winnipeg during the 1940s and 1950s, is about Ukrainian immigrant landladies, their families, and the people who rented rooms from them. The historical fiction paperback and ebook\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A House Full of Strangers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Seaboard-Revew-Image.png?fit=1080%2C1080&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Seaboard-Revew-Image.png?fit=1080%2C1080&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Seaboard-Revew-Image.png?fit=1080%2C1080&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Seaboard-Revew-Image.png?fit=1080%2C1080&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Seaboard-Revew-Image.png?fit=1080%2C1080&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":638,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/a-whole-empire-walking\/","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":1},"title":"A Whole Empire Walking","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"16 \u0421\u0435\u0440\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I was old enough to comprehend, my mother has bent my ear with stories of how awful it was in the old country, before she immigrated to Canada when she was 14.\u00a0 Although my mother is a born storyteller, she can only remember so far back. She also passed\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/A-Whole-Empire-Walking.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5479,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2021\/uncategorized\/the-world-revolves-around-family\/","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":2},"title":"The World Revolves Around Family","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"12 \u0427\u0435\u0440\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The World revolves around family, for where would we be without one? No matter the religion, the race, the culture, the sexual orientation, we've all struggled to manage the restrictions imposed because of the pandemic. Forced to work from home, or forced to be home, many have strengthened their family\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"world revolves around family","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/diversity-5452364_960_720.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/diversity-5452364_960_720.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/diversity-5452364_960_720.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/diversity-5452364_960_720.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":645,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/taking-a-break-to-de-clutter-the-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":3},"title":"Taking A Break To De-clutter The Mind","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"19 \u0421\u0435\u0440\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I\u2019ve been up to my eyeballs trying to figure out the next steps in my writing life \u2014and getting confused as to which direction to take\u2014I took a break and went for a hike. What always boggles my mind is how refreshed I feel after a walk in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/P1100314-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1863,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2014\/uncategorized\/what-dreams-tell-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":4},"title":"What Dreams Tell Us","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"13 \u0413\u0440\u0443\u0434\u043d\u044f, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m a believer in what dreams tell us. I grew up in a house where dreams were discussed over morning coffee. My mother and baba would get out a tattered dream book to find out what their dreams meant.\u00a0 For them, everything in a dream was symbolic of something else.\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/film-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dreams","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/dreams.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/dreams.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/dreams.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/dreams.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1102,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2012\/writing\/writing-family-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":5},"title":"Writing Family History","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"5 \u0416\u043e\u0432\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m back to working on my baba\u2019s \u00a0story, NO TIME FOR TEARS, which is essentially an immigrant\u2019s story. \u00a0It\u2019ll be published as a novel, as I\u2019ve had to do a lot of research to fill in the blanks. \u00a0Because she lived behind the Iron Curtain, in Eastern Europe, information has\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/P1090283-300x297.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}