A Considerable Age

Home
Notes
Stories From Mother Land
Archive
About

“When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground."

It’s an African proverb. Every person is a library of stories, and the world is made up of our stories.

I’m Alice, and each Sunday morning I share people’s wildly authentic, heart-stoppingly real, or funny stories for you to read while you enjoy a morning coffee. Occasionally, I send out something I have written myself. I’m a slow writer, so it takes me a while. All of us of a considerable age have something to say.

I love people's stories, and I can listen to someone reminisce, if not for hours, then at least for the duration of a shared meal. Some stories take a while to tell, like a friend's story about the time in the 60s when he was sure his tennis partner was Abby Hoffman, living under a pseudonym in Montreal. Others are short, but funny, like another tale told by friend about getting on a bus to go to his first protest when he was eighteen and seeing his mother at the back handing out salami sandwiches. I finally understood he came by his left-wing anti-establishment views honestly.

My dad shared his stories over many successive conversations during the last three years of his life. His stories were the kind that took a while to tell. My own storytelling started then when I wanted to share my dad’s stories.

I love it when a story teaches me something, touches my heart or makes me laugh. I ache when shit happens to someone that's hard to deal with, and I marvel at their incredible resiliency. I'm curious about all the granular details of people's lives. Yet I consider myself a private person — or I thought I was until I started sharing my stories online with strangers.

Thank you for your support and for coming along with me every Sunday morning. It's a labour of love, and I'm so appreciative you are here, and in this crazy world, we can connect across boundaries, real and perceived. I hope you will consider sharing your stories. We have so much to learn from one another (thank you to one reader who reminded me of that).

Finally, you can read all the stories for free. A paid subscription, if it is something you can afford or want to do, is optional and a vote of confidence. It allows me to collaborate with a talented digital artist, Stella Kalaw, who creates the artwork for every story starting in February 2024, and for help from editors working with some of the writers to polish their stories.

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have a story you wish to share—I’ll do my best to help you tell it, if need be. And feel free to comment about something that was published. My email is agoldbloom@videotron.ca

Subscribe to A Considerable Age

Always searching for a bit of light. Widely authentic stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday morning are my small contribution.

People

Alice Goldbloom

@aconsiderableage
On a good day, I slay dragons, write essays, and still have time to make dinner. On a bad day, we have to order in.

Beth Kaplan

@bethkaplan
Beth Kaplan is the author of five books: a biography, two memoirs, and a guide to creative writing that's the textbook for the nonfiction writing courses she teaches at U of T. Her latest book is Midlife Solo, a memoir-in-essays. www.bethkaplan.ca.

Susie Kaufman

@susiekaufman
Retired hospice chaplain and archivist, Susie Kaufman, is the author of Twilight Time: Aging in Amazement. Her focus has always been on lifting up people's stories and seeing them in the context of the larger story that embraces all of us.

Bryan Demchinsky

@bryandemchinsky
Former Montreal Gazette editor. Still writing, still editing.

Donna Thompson

@donnathompson1
Donna is a city girl, preferring asphalt and traffic over woods and waters, albeit in a little city by the ocean. She's a boomer, comfortable on the golf course, in the kitchen, and playing her bass guitar. Her published writing has been episodic.

Jinks Hoffmann

@jinkshoffmann631018
I am a spiritual director, psychotherapist and poetry editor for Spiritual Directors International. Addicted to "waking up" through invitations from life and my dreams, my greatest joy is my huge family of nineteen grands and twelve great-grands.

Gina Roitman

@rivkawrites
Author, writing coach, and former penguin herder, Gina’s books include the novel, “Don’t Ask” and the collection “Tell Me Story, Tell Me the Truth.” She was also the subject of the award-winning documentary, My Mother, the Nazi Midwife and Me.

Anna C Rumin

@skazki
Anna designs and teaches memoir based writing courses.

Sari Lubitsch Tudiver

@sarilt
Sari Lubitsch Tudiver is a cultural anthropologist and women’s health advocate who has worked in academic, government and community settings. She lives in Ottawa and still loves to swim.

Peter Newman

@peternewman1
I'm a physician, writer of non-fiction stories, and lover of ice cream.

Dana Kobernick

@dkmtl
Dana Kobernick is the author of The Prague Crystal and the short story "The Sweetness of Pears." She is the communications manager at a Montreal independent school.

Virginia Fisher Yaffe

@virginiafisheryaffe832287
Virginia Fisher Yaffe is intensely grateful to have reached a considerable age. She tries hard to keep looking forward imagining a world where humanity prizes similarities rather than differences.

John Aylen

@johnaylen
John Aylen is a book publisher and marketing professor who divides his time between Orford, Quebec, and Montreal.

Paula Halpin

@paulahalpin654467
Retired magazine editor living in the beautiful Gatineau Hills of Western Quebec. Grateful for finally having the time, perspective and opportunity to write and share stories.

David Goldbloom

@davidgoldbloom925302
I'm a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto who recently retired from clinical practice - so now I have more time to write.

Mariam S. Pal

@mariamp
Montrealer Mariam Pal's first book, Ballet is not for Muslim Girls was named best multicultural memoir of 2023 by Memoir Magazine. She is completing her second book, Definitely Not One of the Guys, a memoir of her international development career.

Kristin Shannon

Somehow, sometime, somewhere, I stopped writing. Detour -marriage, kids, and a fulfilling interior design career. I am thinking that all the decades of words I stored are now busting to get out.

Noha Beshir

@nohabeshir
Essayist and poet. Recovering People-pleaser. Second generation Muslim Canadian based in Ottawa, Canada.

Lynne Tanner

@crazyme
Lynne Santy Tanner was born in New York City. She is a poet and served as choreographer for the Rutherford County Arts Council in North Carolina for Fifty years. She met Alice at the Swag

Adair Heuchan

@adairheuchan
Retired Canadian diplomat, master gardener, dabbler in art and poetry, now aiming to promote smiles through writing.

Lin Morency Buckland

@linmorencybuckland664919
Lin has written letters, journals, and stories from various parts of the world where she has lived, worked, and travelled during her considerably long life. She is now (mostly) settled in the woods of Ontario, Canada.
© 2024 A Considerable Age
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture