Berkeley author and retired physician Marc Sapir’s new book boasts thoughtful narratives about elders nearing the end of their lives.
“I’ll Fly Away: Stories About Amazing Disabled Elders” (256 pages, $14.99, May 13, 2025) offers insight into 40 resilient individuals in their twilight years. Their stories provide insight not only into remarkable lives but also highlight key features of elderly care.
“I’ve done a lot of interesting, good things with elders that have helped maintain their quality of life, and I think people can learn from these stories about how we can all do that for each other,” says Sapir, who appears at 5:30 p.m. July 23 at Book Passage in San Francisco’s Ferry Building to read from and sign copies of the book.
The 40 stories in “I’ll Fly Away” stem from his experiences at the Center for Elders’ Independence in downtown Oakland, where he served as a medical director and physician for nine years.
“I started working on these stories early in my tenure at CEI. I wasn’t at the time necessarily planning a book, but it was a very social program,” he explains.
The center, which opened in 1994, offers the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, in which older adults are provided with personalized care plans based on their needs. Its participants remain in their own homes and communities, maintaining their independence.
Many of the book’s stories center on Sapir’s patients at the day center; others describe patients whom he routinely interacted with, even though they weren’t under his direct care.
The stories cover the participants as well as their families and the center’s history and care procedures.
Sapir created and co-led a “Reading and Reminiscences” group in which six to a dozen attendees would sit in a circle as he read excerpts from works by writers such as Langston Hughes and Toshio Mori.
“I picked the readings based on things that I thought would evoke memories from people,” he says.
After he read, he’d ask the group members if there was anything they heard in the story that reminded them of aspects of themselves or their experiences; they’d go around the circle and share perspectives and recollections.
“That was sort of the humus for really getting more interested in writing stories about people’s lives,” says Sapir, noting that some material in “I’ll Fly Away” comes from the Reading and Reminiscences discussions.
Sapir, a prolific writer, has authored a memoir (“Deja Vu with Quixotic Delusions of Grandeur,” May 2024), a novel, poetry and plays, as well as stories and articles featured in various publications.
Sapir enjoys getting his thoughts down on paper and on a computer screen: “I just always have needed to write, and so that was what got me started on writing these stories.”
Sharing personal stories — those of others and one’s own — is impactful, says Sapir, particularly as people age.
“Memoir writing and reminiscing are very important for elders to maintain quality of life and self-knowledge and so forth to get through it, because you lose so much, even socially. Your friends are dying, you can’t do as much, you can’t get out as much, and so you lose a lot of social context. Memoirs and reminiscing afford you the opportunity to kind of hang in,” he says.
“I’ll Fly Away” coincides with Sapir’s consideration of his own legacy. For the physician, 84, writing is a means to reflect on his long history in the medical field and specifically in geriatric care among elderly patients, coupled with his own experiences.
“Writing books about your life is something that you can hold on to and reflect upon the good and the bad and so forth, and I urge everybody to do that,” he says, adding, “I think that’s one of the purposes of the book— it’s a personal need that I was fulfilling, also.”
One message “I’ll Fly Away” conveys about aging is how crucial it is to accept slowing down rather than attempt to push the envelope beyond what one can.
”We’re all going to die,” says Sapir, “and the point is to live successfully as long as you have some quality of life.”
Marc Sapir appears at 5:30 p.m. July 23 at Book Passage, 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco; bookpassage.com.
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