Our Story (So Far)
Here’s the story behind so many more beautiful stories.
The First Phone Call
I loved talking with my grandma, but I was slow to start talking to her, and even slower to admit that I loved – or no, more than that, I needed – our little conversations. Two weeks before I turned 26, in the summer of 2006, I thought I would call her just to say hello. I had never done that before.
She lived quietly and simply in Seattle, where I grew up since the age of 12 and attended college. I had since trailed away, first for study abroad trips in Mexico, Italy and Chile, then grad school in Boston, then marriage and a career as an architect in Philadelphia.
We had nothing in common – or so I thought. I thought we would run out of things to say after a few minutes of comparing the weather on the opposite coasts. Instead, we stayed on the phone for almost an hour. I still remember the warmth on my ear from the phone. Before the call, I had never felt farther away from her; after the call, I had never felt closer.
At the end, I said our family must be amazed by her stories. “No one knows any of this,” she said. “No one knows because no one asks.” She told me I was silly for finding her special.
When I asked whether I could call her back regularly to hear more stories, she burst into the happiest laugh I had ever heard. If I were to give the sound a name, the name would be, “The Best Day of My Life So Far.”
The best part was, not only did I know that was how she felt, in my heart, I felt the same way too.
During our phone calls, she told me story after story from her past; I would listen – I mean, really listen – because my Chinese is rusty from leaving Hong Kong at age 12. Her stories transported me from my life in downtown Philadelphia, to the Chinese village where she was born, the budding city of Hong Kong where she survived a world war and raised eleven children, and her suburban home in Seattle. Traveling across time and geography with her, I learned about her hopes, dreams, and fears – and started to discover my own.
Forming a Community
In 2008, with the country in recession, I looked around me and saw many people depressed over the loss of money and jobs. But my deepening friendship with my grandma had shown me a small cross-cultural, cross-generational truth: in life, it is relationships, not things, not money, which matter the most – and stories may just be the most powerful key to genuine relationships. I needed to share this secret with other people, old and young.
I approached the Philadelphia Senior Center, near where I lived, with the idea of a storytelling and writing workshop. They had no room to spare, so I worked it out with the director to borrow a staff member’s basement office during his lunch hour every Thursday, for just six weeks. Our first session was September 24, 2009. Soon, the older adults started calling our sessions “Partytime.” Besides showing up to laugh and cry with this marvelous cocoon of eager storytellers every week, I started a blog to share their stories and reflect on what happened during our partytime.
By October 15, my older buds timidly asked that I continue the group beyond the initially intended six weeks. Without the pause of a breath, I said, “YES!” Amazed by how much happier, stronger and more confident our group participants had become in just a matter of weeks, the director and staff member agreed to let us keep using the space.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, a quiet miracle began to happen. More and more readers began accessing my older buds’ stories online. Blog readers began sending me moving emails to say how much the stories – and the storytellers’ transformations – have inspired them to live fuller lives or to reach out to their aging parents or grandparents. Some even offered to help me transcribe all the wonderful stories for the blog. A virtual community of younger people began to form, inspired by the stories OUR older buds have to tell.
That little blog was the start of this website, which has brought you and me together here, right now, today! And that little group in the basement was the start of our national network of storytelling groups, community events and professional development curriculum. Even as our organization expanded, I still called my grandma every other night. She and I just loved watching The Best Day of My Life So Far spirit spread to so many people. Every phone call made it the best day of my life so far, all over again.
Expanding Our Impact
My grandma’s physical voice gave birth to Best Day, and guided its growth for almost ten years. She smiled until her last day on earth. The life lessons from her stories and the memories of the moments we shared will stay with me forever. And her positive, life-loving, people-loving spirit will always be the guiding force that breathes life to our organization.
From a little group huddled around a table at a local senior center, we have grown into a true community. Within 10 years, The Best Day of My Life So Far trained over 300 volunteers, and impacted the lives of thousands of older adults and younger listeners nationwide, through dozens of sites for our signature storytelling group program, Story Pop-Up community events, and Story Cure professional development programs.
In 2017, we packaged our exclusive, trademarked content into a powerful digital toolbox. This toolbox, carefully distributed through proper partnerships and city-focused programming, allows our methods to scale nationwide. In 2019, our 10th anniversary, we brought our training and programming to a greater audience with partnerships in 10 cities, and built out our internal capacity to ensure that we will be around for the next decades to come. Our program partners ranged from colleges to senior centers, nursing homes to large-scale care networks.
In 2020, with the country and world facing massive health, economic and social crises, “isolation” suddenly became a household word and intergenerational experience. Best Day took virtual engagement to the next level immediately, and strengthened our fight to solve it. We expanded all of our existing core programs (Storytelling Groups, Story Pop-Up Events and Story Cure) to include robust virtual options.
In the next few years, in response to our country’s evolving and growing needs for human re-connection, we added two more core programs, to welcome even more people into the inclusive and evergrowing intergenerational communication loop that we have created. First, we launched Social Connection Work Group in 2021 - to gather thought leaders around the country to solve social isolation and improve older adult care across all disciplines in fresh ways; then, we launched Grand Camp Youth Leadership Academy in 2023 and piloted it in 2024 in collaboration with Haddonfield School District - to guide youth to become compassionate listeners.
Now - in 2024, we are celebrating our 15th Anniversary and making plans and setting goals for the next 15 years. We plan to scale our programs through meaningful partnerships to broaden and deepen our impact nationwide - one city at a time, one story at a time. We will focus on three goals: improving the health and lives of older adults by giving them time, space and courage to share their life stories; educating youth to become compassionate listeners; and improving the quality of care and healthcare in our country.
Every chapter of the Best Day Story has surpassed my wildest dreams. I cannot wait to keep telling and listening to our own story, together with you.
- Benita Cooper, 2024