Stories to tell: Glenwood City woman entertains Havenwood tenants, learns from them during “Stories with Vickie”

By Cara L. Dempski

GLENWOOD CITY — Vickie Schmidt is one of nature’s storytellers.

“I’ve read a lot, you know, since I was a kid,” she said. “I was the nerd who would walk down to the library, take six books home with her, read them, and then went back as soon as I could to get more. I think when you read a lot, you can become a natural storyteller.”

The Glenwood City woman has put her love of stories and natural abilities to work every other Saturday morning by telling stories to residents of the Havenwood assisted living facility. Sometimes Schmidt reads to the residents from popular books or articles, other times she brings stories she has written and reads those.

She has loved writing since she was a child, keeping a diary, and writing poetry and short stories. As her love of reading and writing grew, Schmidt published several stories in newspapers, and even took college-level writing courses to hone her skill.

It was hard to focus on anything but Schmidt during her interview. Her ability to speak clearly, her colorful language and descriptions, and her expressions and animated conversation style make it easy to understand how she regularly gathers a crowd of between three and six residents – sometimes more – every other Saturday morning.

Stories with Vickie

Schmidt, who used to serve as a medical coding supervisor in a Hudson clinic, is employed at Havenwood, and mostly helps serve meals and clean rooms, but she also volunteers her time and energy for activities with the residents at the apartment facility.

She is always looking for new things to do with the Havenwood Tenants, and several months ago hit on the idea of telling stories for the people who live there. She was not sure what to expect to begin with, but decided to start in safe territory.

Since so many of the people residing at Havenwood have had animals and love them, she found a copy of the book “Chicken Soup for the Pet-lovers’ Soul,” since she knew it would be something the tenants could understand. Each of the stories has an uplifting life lesson or story that goes along with it.

“These people need to be uplifted in any way, shape, or manner you can,” Schmidt said.

The Havenwood worker noticed people came and seemed to enjoy the stories being read, so she decided to try reading them a story she wrote for the Marshfield newspaper about shopping with her sister, mother, and aunt as a young girl.

“I brought one of those (her stories) one time, and they loved it,” she laughed. “When I’m telling a story, or reading a story to them, I want their interaction.”

When Schmidt tells a story, she will ask her listeners about their experiences with what she is describing, whether it be a story about a trip to an old-fashioned drug store, going to an apple orchard, or working with animals.

She said she loves the chance to interact with the people listening to her, because she learns a great deal from the tenants when they talk. Schmidt also enjoys finding trivia about some of the subjects she presents, because it is a chance for both her and the tenants to learn something new.

The storyteller

Schmidt was born in Marshfield, and she was approximately seven years old when they moved to Eau Claire.

Life has taken her many places, but she has lived in Wisconsin for much of the last 20 years.

“When I got to a certain age and everyone was leaving, I grabbed a guy and a $50 station wagon and went down to Texas,” she said.

The Glenwood City woman landed in Houston, but moved to a new location every six months or so due to her significant other’s status as a roughneck on oil rigs. The frequent changes in location gave her ample fodder for stories.

She started becoming more serious about writing when she took a few college writing courses while living in Houston. Schmidt recalled discovering there were more people like her in the world when she attended her first writing class.

“A writer feels differently than other people,” she explained. “They feel more. I just looked at those people around me, and when they would write their stories, their feelings would come out. I thought, ‘oh my God, these people are like me. I finally found people like myself.’”

There are many people who consider writing a challenge, but Schmidt said that is not the case for her. She said she has written stories about little white ponies, a cross-eyed dog named Harry, and anything else you can think of.

While she pulls much of her writing inspiration from her own life experiences, there was a time when Schmidt was required to write a fictional short story for one of her classes.

She wound up writing a fictional piece about a winged horse featuring two prominent characters who were complete opposites. When her writing instructor told her the two characters could not possibly be real, and Schmidt needed to change them, the Glenwood woman had to laugh.

“Those were the only two characters I pulled from real life,” she said.

In fact, the duo were inspired by a pair who regularly showed up at an annual thrift sale, and who usually purchased books.

Schmidt has had stories published in a variety of newspapers, and has considered publishing books, but finds life often gets in the way of that goal.

She also laments the loss of storytelling among younger generations, who seem to have the world at their fingertips with the advent of digital technology.

“I grew up in the era before technology. It seemed like every sentence we said started with ‘let’s pretend.’ We pretended anything. Kids now don’t have to pretend anything, because they have it all,” she explained.

The semi-retired woman finds she is enjoying her volunteer time telling stories, and has several other ideas to keep Havenwood tenants engaged and occupied.

For now, though, she is enjoying giving the group something to look forward to every other Saturday.

If anyone is interested in learning more about Vickie Schmidt or hearing the stories she tells, they can contact Glenhaven for further information.