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This article is written by Leeanne Oschmanns

The use of Biography writing as a therapeutic tool in palliative care was first developed in New Zealand and has become an approach used in some regions of Australia. One of the struggles that are faced by the dying and their carers is in finding meaning in the inevitability of death. Paradoxically, a meaningful death can be achieved only through the appreciation of a meaningful life. Quite often we overlook the day to day course of our lives as we get on with the business of living it. So often it takes a catalytic event for us to stop and take stock. To look back and ponder where it is we’ve been and the road we have traveled is to begin to find meaning and value.

Palliative Biography Writing is a special approach to helping the dying person to remember and find order in the recollections of their life. Through the use of voice recording, the story-telling process can be documented and written in such a way that the voice of the person whose life story is being told remains their own. Through the format of oral history, the person retains ‘ownership’ of their story and control over the memoir. Each story is unique not only through events, but also in the ‘voice’ of the story teller. Literary style and publishing conventions present no limitations and the exercise becomes open to creativity in a pure and unfettered way.

While some clients choose the option of a straightforward recounting of events in a traditional, sequential way, others are open to a variety of approaches. Some choose to recount the important aspects of their lives in a sequence of poems and verse. Others arrange the telling as a family history, firming up their place in the family tree. Some, musically inclined, will even sing their life story in a series of musical verse and performance poetry. Even the writing of a life play can serve the purpose.

A common thread running through most lives recounted are the physical items that have been important along the way. Small gifts and treasures, favourite cards and hobbies, old photos and so forth are the ‘stuff’ of life.  Many clients request that some of their special items be somehow incorporated into their biography. There are so many ways this can be achieved. Sometimes there is the favourite painting or drawing from a child which can be incorporated into the piece along with tiny things and old photos. Small remembrances like birthday cards and little notes, often long-forgotten are suddenly recalled and brought to light as the story-telling process unlocks the door to memories long stored away. Below is one beautiful example that was used by a client. A vintage card that had special meaning for her and her daughter. It had been stored in an old shoe box and was found as she was looking for things to include in her story. As she had advanced brain cancer, it became increasingly difficult for her to articulate the things she wanted to say. Placing these items and arranging them in meaningful groupings with other things helped her to achieve some continuity and expression of what she wanted to say.

Many families choose to put Memory Boxes together as their loved one draws nearer the end. These contain items that hold meaning for the family members in relation to their loved one and special times and connections that they have shared.

The Biography however, is put together by the palliative patient and holds the stories and ‘things’ that are important to him/her in relation to their own life. So it is a more personal account. Assembling a mixed media expression of meaning is (and should always be) a pleasurable activity. It does not have to be a commercial work of art because it is foremost a spiritual work of art.

Having worked with a number of these clients has allowed me to develop a new appreciation of art, and mixed media art in particular, as a tool of spiritual expression and mixed media is a way of encompassing so many aspects of a person’s life. Working in this area of biography brings so much reward and as one client, a child of World War Two said to me after reading her completed story “You know, I haven’t had such a bad life after all.” I think that is what we would all hope for.

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Leeanne Oschmanns is a writer, poet, mum, teacher and an ‘opportunity’ artist, meaning she looks for every opportunity she can find to incorporate art into her life. She has a love of words and find they help her to weave literary pictures to go with her artistic endeavours. Leeanne finds mixed media is a way of melding the elements of so much of what she enjoys in life…Gardening, history, animals, people and storytelling.

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