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Christine Bailey, M.A received her master's degree in gerontology and bachelor's degree in art and textile design. Since 1992 she has been helping seniors and their families enhance the quality of their lives. She has been a Compassionate Touch practitioner for those in later life stages, developed optimal aging wellness programs, worked on older adult research studies at Yale and The University of Pennsylvania, and coordinated services for seniors and the disabled. Most recently she has been an expressive art specialist for patients and families at Masonicare Home Health and Hospice. Currently she is a research associate at the Program on Aging at Yale University leading health education groups on Successful Aging.
Christine helped Hospice patients and families tell their stories and preserve their memories at the end of life as a lasting legacy for generations. When her own father turned 80, she realized she wanted to preserve her own family's stories and honor her father with verbal tributes and remembrances from family members. She created Colorful Chronicles: Preserving the Memories in 2008 recording oral histories and preserving not only the verbal legacies, but capturing the visual memories through photo collages, written stories, poems and even 3-Dimentionally through plaster hand casts. She encourages people not to wait to share their colorful stories. Acting as a guide, Christine will offer questions to review one's life and lead them to describe moments of their lives, validating a person's strengths to reaffirm a positive sense of identity. Even those with memory deficits can create colorful chronicles which are insightful.