Once a month the 10 or so members of the Mattapoisett Library’s memoir group gather to share their personal histories.

Hailing from as far away as Denmark and as near as the Village, their life stories are a mix of adventure and domesticity, history and meditation – the world-traveling engineer who scouted out a highway in a Ghana jungle, the military wife preparing for her first child in the 1978 blizzard, the Mattapoisett native pretending to be a wounded World War II soldier on the lawn of Center School.

“It’s somehow hopeful and always uplifting, not that everyone’s life was always easy but it’s presented … not with bitterness but with acceptance,” said Library Director Susan Pizzolato. “It’s one of the best things that happens at the library.”

Now two years old, the group was born of a memoir writing class at Taber Library in Marion and a memoir writing workshop at Mattapoisett Library.

Cathy Delano, one of the founding members, said the group offered people the freedom to share their stories in their own way.

“It was so amazing,” Delano said. “Just listening to people’s stories was awesome and humbling. I learned a lot about history and the deep roots in the area.”

Pizzolato emails optional writing prompts, but members get as much if not more inspiration by listening to each others' stories and getting positive feedback.

“I’ve been so warmly accepted,” said Elizabeth Farley, originally of Wales. “I’ve always wanted to put some memoirs together and this has been an encouragement for me to do it.”

Gail McSwiggan, also new to the group, agreed.

“It took a lot for me to come that first time. Someone said, ‘I’m glad you came back.’ I’ve been coming back ever since,” she said.

At the April meeting, McSwiggan read a story about being nine months pregnant with her first child during the blizzard of 1978. Her husband, a military pilot, was often in the air, but left her an index card with emergency numbers in case she went into labor. McSwiggan read about how she talked to her unborn baby, willing it to wait until her husband was home.

Finding the card with those phone numbers in her desk sparked the story. Holding up the yellowed paper, McSwiggan said, “If it weren’t for this group, I would never have written that.”

BJ Nooth also brought an artifact to illustrate her piece. Putting her father's old canvas-lined Mackinaw coat on a chair, Nooth read about accompanying her father on the train where he worked, remembering hiding behind him as the other workers teased her. After her father passed away, she asked her siblings if she could have the coat her father wore to the train yard every day.

Ann Briggs, a Mattapoisett native, read a poem about her 12th year, just after World War II broke out. Briggs said she was still haunted by the drills she and other students performed on the Center School lawn when they were tasked to be trauma victims. She remembered good things about the time, too.

Most of the sugar went to the troops, so instead of frosting between the layers of her birthday cake, Briggs’ mother used beach plum jelly, which is still a favorite.

Hearing such stories has changed how Phyllis Goodwin views the episodes of her own life.

“Coming here has given me more confidence because of the acceptance,” she said. “I feel like, this is my story. I don’t have to measure up to somebody else.”

Thankfully, as the only male in the group, Christian Ingerslev isn’t tempted to write like anyone else in the group either.

“I can’t write about being pregnant,” he joked.

Instead, Ingerslev, a native of Denmark who grew up in England, is slowly penning memories of his world travels – from a road trip across the Middle East with his mother to business trips in Africa. While his tales keep the group enthralled, the group keeps him writing.

“It’s just finding the time and inspiration, that is what the group does,” he said.

And everyone has a place.

“We’re friends and we keep things in confidence,” said Nooth. “Some are newly grieving, some exploring all that stuff that is buried. We need a little jolt to get that done.”

The group meets the fourth Friday of every month, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, in the downstairs meeting room of the Mattapoisett Library.