The best, most enduring stories, it turns out, are those that contain both hardship and humor. Like the one Evelyn Karozos, who comes from a large Greek family in the Midwest, told me about how the whole family used to eat dinner in the parents\u2019 bedroom on sticky summer nights\u2014because that was the only room with an air conditioner. Or the one a southern grandmother\u2014and who can beat Southerners for storytelling\u2014told me the one about her great grandpa, who once wooed a wealthy widow by wrapping the few dollar bills he had around a wad of newspaper, then casually letting it drop from his pocket, leaving the impression that he was rolling in money.<\/p>\n
And then there was the one from Emily Pickle, a young mother from Florida, who recounted a bittersweet story about the time her grandmother was going through a health crisis in which she suffered temporary dementia-like symptoms. \u201cThis was the year the Gators won the championship, and the quarterback was Danny Wuerffel,\u201d she told me, adding, \u201cFootball is a very big deal where we come from.\u201d When her mother and uncle went to visit Grannie in the hospital, they found her repeating, \u201cDanny Wuerffel, Danny Wuerffel\u201d over and over, as if she were reciting a prayer. When Pickle\u2019s Uncle Jay shared the anecdote with the rest of the family, he mimicked Grannie\u2019s reverence, rocking back and forth, repeating the beloved QB\u2019s name, eliciting laughter and tears in his audience. \u201cIt was awful, but it was funny, too, the way he told us,\u201d she pointed out. And beneath the laughter and the tears, Uncle Jay was sending an important message to the rest of the family, that \u201cGrannie’s going to recover from this; she\u2019s going to laugh, we\u2019re going to laugh, and this will be one more family story \u2014 not<\/em> a family tragedy.\u201d And he was right.<\/p>\n Psychologists call these \u201credemptive stories,\u201d because they \u201credeem\u201d a negative experience, finding some silver lining in a bad event. The point is NOT to be a pollyanna and sugarcoat the fear, danger, or difficulty. The point is to acknowledge the negativity, and also find some kind of lesson or benefit in it\u2014even if that benefit is simply that the family came together to overcome a challenge. When people hear these stories, they get a laugh, a release of tension, a sense of belonging, and a signal that together, we can find ways to carry on.<\/p>\n I tell you all this because, as writers, we deal in stories. We distill them and write them down and spruce them up and pass them on. And by doing so, we are not only making a livelihood; we are contributing to the health and well being of the people who read us.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to read the Good Housekeeping<\/em> article.<\/p>\n Frances blogs about writing, publishing and footwear at PaperInMyShoe.com<\/a>![\"Frances](\"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Frances-Lefkowitz.jpg\")
<\/a>Frances Lefkowitz <\/a>is the former Senior Editor of Body+Soul (aka Martha Stewart’s Whole Living) and Book Reviewer for Good Housekeeping, as well as the author of the memoir To Have Not<\/em>. She writes and edits fiction and nonfiction, and teaches for The Sun magazine’s writing workshops, the Omega Institute’s Memoir Festival (with Cheryl Strayed), Catamaran Literary Review’s August 2015 retreat, and other events.<\/p>\n
\nPhoto by Giacco Yanez<\/p>\n