INPERSON
Building a Bridge Home
Bethel Park author pens book on having important discussions with your parents .
BY PAUL GLASSER
Local author Lori Hedderman wrote her second book to help individuals have important discussions with their aging parents .
“ Don ’ t throw away the time you have left with those you care about ,” she urges . “ Maybe you don ’ t have the relationship with your parent you would like , but you need to make peace with what it is and your contribution to it .”
Hedderman , of Bethel Park , published “ Remembering Together : A Guidebook for Meaningful Conversations with Your Aging Parents ” last year . It includes a workbook with activities and ideas to help children ask questions and have conversations with their parents . For example , a child could ask his or her parents about people who played a significant role in their life or how certain experiences affected them .
“ You can talk to someone for years and really not know about their life or how they grew into the person they are today ,” Hedderman says . “ Maybe your parent neglected to share certain aspects of his or her life with you , whether on purpose or by oversight . Maybe there are questions a child had not thought to ask an aging parent .”
Hedderman has taken her own advice to heart and has made it a point to share more stories and anecdotes from her own childhood with her son . She also started asking her parents more about how they grew up .
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