Grandma's Superhero Therapy

Original article by Eugene at My Modern Met blog
My writing prompts/exercises are at the bottom.

I discovered this from a link on Twitter. Here's the Twitter message:

from @ThatBarbPerson

Stories need vibrant characters. This morning's character #prompt: Granny is a superhero... mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs… #writing #amwriting

Check out our super hero's face:

Photographer: Sacha Goldberger

French photographer Sacha Goldberger wanted to cheer up his 91-year-old grandmother who was feeling lonely and depressed. His solution was to "shoot a series of  outrageous photographs in unusual costumes, poses, ad locations. Grandma reluctantly agreed, but once they got rolling, she couldn't stop smiling."

He had unexpected success from this series of photos. So he decided to create a MySpace page for his grandmother, Frederika.



On that page he told the grandmother's story. She was born in Budapest. During War II, she hid Jews from the Nazis by moving them from place to place each day. She is credited with saving the lives of 10 people while risking her own life. Years later she was "forced by the Communist regime to leave her homeland illegally or face death" and migrated to France.

Aside from great strength, Frederika has an incredible sense of humor, one that defies time and misfortune. She is funny and cynical, always mocking the people that she loves.

At the time the article was written (2010) she had over 2,200 friends on her MySpace page. At first, she didn't get it.  Why would all these people be writing her to congratulate her? The author writes that "little by little, she realized that her story conveyed a message of hope and joy."

Writing exercise

Pick one on the topics below. Jot down a few notes for your answer.

1. Courage and spunk

• Have you ever known a real person who showed great courage and spunk?
• If not, think about memorable characters from history, books, movies, or TV? Try to come up at least three heroes. What does it mean to be a hero? How do they show their courage and spunk? What do they have in common (aside from courage and spunk)?
  
• If nothing comes to mind, create the mostly unlikely hero.

2. A helping hand

• The superhero photo session was very a clever way to pull someone out of depression. What does the story tell about the grandson?
• What are some things that families or friends do to help someone who is feeling in the dumps? Can you think of a creative technique that you could write a short story about?
• Have your tried to help someone and had unexpected consequences?

3. In the family

• Do you have an older relative who has a story that needs to be told? (It doesn't have to be heroic.) Maybe it's a love story or a drama.  Maybe he or she had to deal with tragedy,  persecution, shattered dreams.  In theory, everyone's life should contain at least one potential story. 
• How did your parents meet?
• Did one of your parents have a competitor in business (maybe a fellow employee who always competed)?
• Did your parents or grandparents deal with changes in the role of women, racial relations, or other societal changes? 
• Do you have a aunt or uncle who never married? 
• What did your grandparents want that they never got?