The Charles Press, Publishers
Review of
A Loving Voice: A Caregiver's Book of Read-Aloud Stories for the ElderlyFrom The Miami Herald, July 12, 1992
by Patti Shillington, Herald Staff Writer
In her work with the elderly, in her visits with her dying mother-in-law, Carolyn Banks dreaded the inevitable silence. Those aching, empty moments between two people—one busy with the hope and promise of a future; the other bored and lonely, sometimes angry and in pain, facing the end.
Banks groped for a way to comfort her husband’s mother and show compassion to the old people at the adult day-care center where she worked part time. And she watched others struggle to communicate, to share quality time, with their aging, ailing parents and grandparents.
Then Banks hit on an idea—to read aloud to the elderly, the way she had been read to as a youngster.
Suitable material was scarce, so she gathered her own, a three-year effort that led to “A Loving Voice: A Caregiver’s Book of Read-Aloud Stories for the Elderly.” Recently published by The Charles Press, which specializes in eldercare material, the 293-page book is a collection of 52 short stories and poems, heavy on atmosphere and light on dialogue.
The book speaks evocatively to the generation that fought in World War II, a generation reared on radio that remembers a time when food was preserved in ice boxes and Dick Powell was a teen-age heartthrob.
The initial printing of 3,000 copies has been fully distributed to bookstores, including Waldenbooks and a second printing is underway. It was edited by Banks, a suspense novelist, and Janis Rizzo, a freelance writer and pharmacist; they are already working on a second volume.
“I knew there was a need for this book,” said Banks, 51, in an interview from her home in Elgin, Texas. “I went to a lot of different nursing homes and asked what they read to the people there. Most read children’s books, which are wonderful, but they just exclude so many areas of experience that these older people have.”
Many of the short stories in “A Loving Voice” are original works by relatively unknown authors. But a few are published stories by established writers, such as “The Leap” by Louise Erdrich, which first appeared in Harper’s, and “Missing Kin” by Shelby Hearon, originally published by PEN Syndicated Fiction.
Molly Charters, president of the Broward County, Fla., chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, said she plans to promote the use of “A Loving Voice” among those with Alzheimer’s, a progressive illness that slowly robs its victims of their minds.
“Even if they can’t follow they story, the fact that someone’s sitting with them and reading to them is good,” she said. “This is an activity that can be done by a caregiver at home, at a day-care center, by an aide coming into the home to provide respite, and it can be done in groups at a nursing home.”
As a writer and book-lover, Banks thought reading aloud was a good way to entertain the elderly she worked with at the adult day-care center. She first tried reading books such as Jean Auel’s “Clan of the Cave Bear.” But the story was too long and drawn out. “It was impossible,” she remembers. “Nobody could remember it, including me, from one day to the next.”
The New Yorker magazine was frequently too subtle, the dialogue in Ellen Gilchrist’s short stories was often unattributed and, as a result, difficult to follow. But still, Banks sensed something important was happening when she read aloud. “I noticed how they tried to listen,” she said. “One man would sit there and utter curses under his breath until I started reading. Then he stopped and paid attention.”
She started her project by writing to authors she liked, asking them to contribute to “A Loving Voice,” and offering $50 of their stories were used. She also put an ad in Poets & Writers magazine. Soon Banks and Rizzo were flooded with 500 manuscripts.
They tested some on patients at the Bastrop Nursing Center in Bastrop, Texas. Then the pair edited the stories they chose, making sure all the dialogue was attributable and the plot was clear.
“This is one way of giving back to our parents and grandparents by reading to them the way they read to us when we were kids, Rizzo said. “It’s a way of expressing how you feel about these people who are so important to you.”