Al Dabney reads his local writers’ group publication. He has seen his work printed in Veterans’ Voices, HVWP’s national magazine.


They mourned the deaths of two members in recent months, both who “were just writing right up to the very last minute.” One of the writer’s widows said of her husband, “‘Ever since he was young, all he ever wanted to do was be published.’ He did get his life’s dream through that program,” said Cass.


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“The one inside tries to wake. To wake him up, what will it take?”


Mark Cooney VAMC Danville, Ill.


“It gives these veterans a chance to say things they would never have a chance to say – ever – because nobody is going to sit down and listen to them.” Some protest at fi rst that they can’t write, but she tells them, “You write what’s coming from inside of you... what you choose to write is what you should write.” One of her group members said, “I never realized it would make me feel so much better about myself once I started telling these stories.”


That former patient is an outpatient still writing, and still coming


back every Friday to help his former roommate “write” by taking his dictation through a voice magnifi er. That would be Sam Stornelli, of St. Cloud, Fla., who put it simply: “Veterans need each other.” “For me, I’m a bit of a storyteller myself,” Stornelli said. “I just had some things on my mind about when I was in the service, and I thought, ‘What better place than with a bunch of guys who’d been there and done that?’”


20 LADIES AUXILIARY VFW MAGAZINE


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