Sarah Wall collected the testimonies of elderly people and made a book from them in Vendée

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Sarah Wall, 45, is a tattoo artist in Saint-Etienne-du-Bois (Vendée). She changed register while writing a book on the memories of octogenarians and older from her town, The wind in the leaves.

Inspired by a writer

The idea of ​​meeting elderly people came to her from a writer she saw on the show The Great Bookstore.

“She said we had to collect all their stories because once they died, they were libraries that disappeared,” explains Sarah Wall.

Eleven testimonies collected

She then contacted the Saint-Etienne-du-Bois nursing home in September 2023 and began interviews in October.

It was a little strange because they don't usually talk about themselves.

Eleven people aged 80 to 99 participated. Quite a few of them were born in the 1920s. There were people from Saint-Etienne, Legé…

Difficulty speaking

In order to collect their stories, Sarah Wall left the retirees free to tell what they wanted. “I didn’t brief them. I already felt that speaking was difficult. They don’t like to put themselves forward,” she explains.

The wind in the leaves is on sale for €10. Information on the Facebook page of the same name.

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