[Stories by the elderly].
This Brazilian article bears interest for its qualitative methodology which allows us to get a feeling for the elderly of this country being able to relate the results of their lives and knowledge to our own. The lack of an educational health program for the elderly led the authors to create the Health Care Group for the Elderly (GRASI in Portuguese) in which we developed an educational program based on the social-historical perspective of L. S. Vygotsky. This current study analyzes the dynamic speeches recorded by a group of elderly in the GRASI educational program. A group of seven elderly people, from both sexes, having an age equal to or greater than 60, participated in an analysis of the content from meetings among themselves. To analyze the data obtained, in the underlying text as well as their recorded speech, the feelings and meanings of their conversations and stories were identified and separated into thematic units. The results obtained reveal that the opportunity to express their experiences regarding the transformation the elderly have lived during their lives, and to find new ways to treat health problems or how to carry out self health care, is an important resource for elderly nursing care which can lead to the development of health education programs.