By Sally Stang
When you listen to people’s stories, that is when you are allowed to enter the heart of another person.” — Brother Mickey McGrath
Nick Klevans is deep. His thoughts are deep, his conversation is deep and — a rare thing in this world — he is a deep listener. Mr. Klevans is a video biographer, capturing people’s life stories to save for posterity and pass along to future generations. He has a particular passion for filming people who are nearing “end of life” situations.
”I owe my initial desire to one of my hospice patients, a man I worked with for five years, who had the misfortune of developing ALS. I said ‘Joe, I would really like to film your life story.’ At the time, I didn’t own a video camera”, said Mr. Klevans, who lives in West Windsor.
”By the time I got around to being able to film him, he had lost his power of speech. A few months later, he passed away. I could kick myself now for not acting faster!”
Joe has become “a guiding angel” on Mr. Klevans’ shoulder, promoting his mission of encouraging people to get their life stories documented, regardless of their age or state of health.
”It has become something of a calling for me rather than a job”, he said.
Rather than finding his calling, his calling found him. His life has taken many turns, leading to his current pursuit and passion.
There was a love of photography from an early age. A significant influence was photographer Diane Arbus, who is famous for her photos of marginal people in society, as well as average people whose normality seems somewhat surreal. What appealed to Mr. Klevans was Arbus’ success in capturing “the intensity in the most ordinary life situations.”
He noted, “I am a lover of looking at things and venturing into the insides of people, their entire being. I want to support them in sharing their stories.”
In 1986, Mr. Klevans became a Hellerwork Structural Integration Practitioner. Hellerwork is a multi-layered practice of bodywork that includes deep tissue massage designed to break up stress patterns ingrained in the connective tissue. It also addresses posture and repetitive motion problems and uses dialogue to address long-held emotional attitudes that create ongoing physical problems.
It is through the dialogue aspect with his clients, for the past 30 years, that Mr. Klevans feels he developed his talents as an adept interviewer and a careful listener.
In addition to Hellerwork, Mr. Klevans also began work as a counseling facilitator — running support groups for cancer patients, for brain-injured patients and their families, and eventually, in 2000, becoming a hospice volunteer where he met his friend Joe.
Mr. Klevans relates, “Hospice work has been a vehicle for me to support people dealing with end-of-life issues. I had two near-death experiences at a fairly young stage in life. As a consequence of those experiences, I have a sense of what happens when we move to the next dimension. Rather than experiencing fear, people need to embrace eternity. Instead of being the end of a person’s identity in the form that they understand as “being”, I feel that death — one’s own and others — can affirm all that life has to offer.
All of these experiences have laid the groundwork for starting his video venture, Princeton Living Legacy.
”Initially, most people say ‘Who would care about my story?’ But, once they get started, they usually speak volumes about life experiences with great enthusiasm,” Mr. Klevans said. “It’s also an opportunity to share family stories of people who preceded them.”
Mr. Klevans added, “Naturally, one doesn’t have to be dying to have a great story. I encourage all people to get their story down, whether on audio or video which, in my opinion, communicates more clearly than the written word.”
Recently, Mr. Klevans finished a living legacy project for Mark McLaughlin, a physician and neurosurgeon in the Princeton area. According to Dr. McLaughlin, the resulting two-hour video has been “a priceless gift”.
”I’m fortunate that my parents are alive. They are in their 80s now, and I thought I had heard all their stories, but this project brought me a unique insight into their lives,” said Dr. McLaughlin. “Nick has a certain talent for asking questions. He was able to elicit old memories from my parents and I heard many new things, turning points in their lives that I never knew about before.”
Dr. McLaughlin continued, “In a world where elders are not respected, this is something that instills family values. This will give my kids a chance to know their grandparents and appreciate the family history. I look forward to passing this along to them and when they become parents, they will watch it with their own children. You can’t put a price on that.”
Every video project has a style of its own. Mr Klevans offers support and coaching to help people create their own stories, providing outlines for questions, suggestions for equipment to use for scanning and organizing photographs or any other documents, plus adding digital media, all ending in a coherent final product.
In the preparation stages, Mr. Klevans’ goal is to get people to open up and clear up whatever it is that needs to be cleared up, before they move on to the next stage or phase of their being.
To get the process started, Mr. Klevans presents his clients with a detailed list of suggested discussion topics designed as memory joggers. The list elicits detailed information about ones’ early origins: a family tree for both maternal and paternal sides of the family, as well as any special memories of childhood homes, family pets, vacations, friends, teachers, schooling, romance, marriage and one’s children.
As the questions become broader and deeper, the person naturally addresses their successes and failures, the happy times and the difficult times, their personal journey through life, their spiritual viewpoint, eventually to the words of wisdom they want to leave to their family, and much more through the process.
The products and services Mr. Klevans offers are: memorial videos which run about 20 minutes, using selected family photos and music; life stories, which require 5 or 6 two-hour interviews, producing a final two-hour film; other photography services for event coverage, weddings, reunions, etc.
For more information, contact Nick Klevans at: [email protected] or 609-520-1940.
