{"id":3859,"date":"2024-12-05T08:42:40","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T08:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.villages.com.au\/?p=3859"},"modified":"2024-12-05T08:46:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T08:46:04","slug":"richard-osmans-the-thursday-murder-club-inspires-residents-into-print","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.villages.com.au\/retirement\/richard-osmans-the-thursday-murder-club-inspires-residents-into-print\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Osman&#8217;s The Thursday Murder Club inspires residents into print"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"3859\" class=\"elementor elementor-3859\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-99bbb14 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"99bbb14\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-083805c\" data-id=\"083805c\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0c3ce94 elementor-drop-cap-yes elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"0c3ce94\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;drop_cap&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.15.0 - 20-08-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>T<strong>he Englishman&#8217;s 2020 murder mystery novel, which is being turned into a film for Netflix viewers, has encouraged residents at Uniting&#8217;s retirement villages to write a book.<\/strong><\/p><p>The First Thursday Memoir Writing Group consists of 13 residents from Uniting&#8217;s McRae-McMahon Place and Hawkins Place in Leichhardt, 5km west of Sydney&#8217;s CBD, who gather in the community room to share stories and connect over lives well-lived.<\/p><p>They bond over storytelling and the creative writing process, in what has been described by the group\u2019s 87-year-old organiser Leone Sperling, as \u2018cathartic and therapeutic\u2019.<\/p><p>The result is a 40,000-word memoir collection reflecting on such themes as friendship, parenting, emotion, and satisfaction.<\/p><p>Leone Sperling (pictured), 87, organiser and a resident at Uniting\u2019s McRae-McMahon Place, had the idea for The First Thursday Memoir Writing Group upon moving to the new village.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-5beea6e elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"5beea6e\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-1cff30c\" data-id=\"1cff30c\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f3b1750 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"f3b1750\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.15.0 - 20-08-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=\".svg\"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Picture8-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-3862\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Picture8-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Picture8-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Picture8-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Picture8-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Picture8-585x439.jpg 585w, https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Picture8.jpg 1430w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-dc20fac elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"dc20fac\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-7c4e05f\" data-id=\"7c4e05f\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f5a0dc0 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f5a0dc0\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>She formed the group to help her meet like-minded people \u2013 those who love writing, storytelling and connection \u2013 and because of a belief that writing memoir stories would be a valuable and healthy activity for people her age.<\/p><p>\u201cIt was not unusual for the reader of a story to become tearful on reading their story to the group. I would set a topic each month that would enable the members to look at their past and find a relevant pertinent moment in their life to examine and turn into an exploration of the feelings involved in that memory,\u201d Leone said.<\/p><p>\u201cIt is certainly a psychologically beneficial thing to be able to express genuine, honest feelings with one\u2019s fellow writers and community.\u201d<\/p><p>Renee England, Head of Senior Services at Uniting, celebrated Leone\u2019s initiative.<\/p><p>\u201cWhat Leone and her friends have created with this engaging and emotional book demonstrates just how wonderful it is to see residents come together in a shared common space. We\u2019re proud to have created an environment that provides the opportunity for our residents to build and share community connections at Uniting.\u201d<\/p><p>Authors of The First Thursday Memoir Writing Group include Leone, Thelma Abrahams, Brigid Sen, Michael Barker, Philip Ansoul, Geoff Amblin, Carole Bye, Julie Bailey, Ginna Hastings, Cathy Milgate, Rowena Simone, Maggie Wall and Richard Whitfield, each of whom came from diverse backgrounds and careers, finding joy in identifying the differences between their stories.<\/p><p>One member, for instance, lived a few streets away from Leone, while others grew up in the UK and had similar experiences as children.<\/p><p>With research showing storytelling can increase resilience and wellbeing in older adults, Leone hopes residents of other retirement villages and aged care services across Australia consider similar initiatives to connect with one another and reflect on their life journeys to-date.<\/p><p>The First Thursday Memoir Writing Group is available via short print-run to friends and family of the residents. For further information, please email <a href=\"mailto:ask@uniting.org\">ask@uniting.org<\/a>.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Englishman&#8217;s 2020 murder mystery novel, which is being turned into a film for Netflix viewers, has encouraged residents at Uniting&#8217;s retirement villages to write a book. The First Thursday Memoir Writing Group consists of 13 residents from Uniting&#8217;s McRae-McMahon Place and Hawkins Place in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retirement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3859"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3865,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3859\/revisions\/3865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}