Ottawa, Ontario -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/24/2013 -- To many, retirement remains a mystery; a shadowy place where people go to disappear, be silenced and grow old in obscurity. However, to millions living their senior years with gusto, it’s a time rife with opportunity. To ensure that life’s wiser generation have an opportunity to share their stories with the world, two Canadian writers have collaborated to release a wholly unique, extraordinary and often inspiring book.

‘The Time of Your Life – Everyone Has a Story’ saw Gayle Leona Jabour and Daniel Tigner interview forty people aged from their early fifties to late nineties. While there was no deliberate attempt to select individuals with interesting tales to tell, the final book is nonetheless full of poignant, multi-faceted chronicles of lives well lived.

“It’s a testament to how rich and intriguing ‘normal’ people can be,” says Jabour. “Often, we believe that only celebrities are worthy of notice. Our book proves that’s a myth.”

‘The Time of Your Life – Everyone Has a Story’ (ISBN: 978-1-77123-032-2), published by General Store Publishing House (www.gsph.com), is available now as a paperback or as an ebook at Amazon, Chapters and independent book shops.

Synopsis:

Imagine the core insights and experiences of a lifetime normally found in a 300-page biography condensed into four or five pages. The Time of Your Life—Everyone Has a Story recounts the essence of the lives of forty people in their early fifties to late nineties and what it is that makes them who they are.

As Jabour explains, each mini-memoir is succinct yet powerful.

“It’s a bit like a collection of short stories, except our forty contributors are telling their own narratives. Each is shared with passion and humour and, because it is being told in the author’s own words, readers will find themselves emotionally engaged,” she says.

Continuing, “The book captures the multi-cultural fabric of North American society and displays our rich living history. Above all, it will allow readers of all ages to develop greater empathy with people of older generations.”

Tigner is delighted with the initial response to the book from teachers.

“It’s a great resource for the reading list for any course on aging, retirement, palliative care and gerontology. We already have educational establishments in Canada and the United States using the book within their curriculums and listing it as mandatory reading. We’re hoping for many schools to adopt The Time of Your Life as no other book shares our older population’s story in such an accessible or entertaining way. Many on-going social and psychological concerns affecting the well-being of our aging population are examined, such as elders remaining in their homes, death and dying, mobility, leisure and health promotion,” he adds.

Praise has come from celebrity radio interviewer and author Gord Atkinson. “This is a really intriguing idea and I can’t think of any book that has covered this subject, which is so important today… it is a book that I think will have great value and be not only inspiring to people approaching retirement or already in retirement but sort of a road map to a lot of them, too.”

About the Authors
Gayle Leona Jabour has been a production coordinator on a number of television and film documentaries, including The Nature of Things. She joined the CRTC in Ottawa as researcher and Canadian content coordinator for the task force on the implementation of the first Canadian Content Regulations for the Canadian film and television production industry.

Daniel Tigner has a graduate degree in Education from McGill University. He has taught high school English and theatre as well as English as a Second Language at the college level. Daniel is also a nature and people photographer. Currently, Gayle and Daniel are collaborating on creating new radio and television documentaries, as well as working on a number of book projects.