Healthy habits are a way of life for Delicia Patri of Yountville. But when the 82-year-old was a small child in her hometown of Asuncion, Paraguay, temptation led her astray at least once.

“Her grandmother smoked cigars,” said Margaret Hildebrandt, Patri’s daughter. “So one time, (mother) saw one just sitting there in the kitchen and she went and took a puff of it.”

Hildebrandt said her mom was about 5 years old at the time. Raised by her grandmother after her own mother’s death, Patri never revealed whether she was caught for the mischievous feat at her grandmother’s country farmhouse.

The anecdote surfaced this week after the mother-daughter duo teamed up with members of StoryCorps, a national nonprofit organization with a mission of recording and archiving the oral autobiographies of ordinary Americans. Napa Valley Hospice and Adult Day Services became the meeting ground Wednesday for Patri and five other locals who chronicled their stories.

For Hildebrandt, the opportunity afforded her a rare glimpse into history and what her mother was like as a little girl and a young adult.

“I think these stories are very important. ... We get our history books, but they may be tainted by the authors’ perceptions,” she said, adding that her mother eventually emigrated from Paraguay to San Francisco with her father, an inventor who landed a job as a machinist with United Airlines in the 1960s.

Hildebrandt, now 42, and her two sisters were born in America. The family lived in the Bay Area for about six years before putting down roots in San Jose, where the sisters ended up spending the remainder of their childhoods.

Sarah Geis — site supervisor for San Francisco’s branch of StoryCorps — said participants like Patri receive audio CDs of their interview and the option of having their stories archived in the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center in Washington, D.C.

Condensed clips of some stories even end up airing on National Public Radio, and StoryCorps has recording booths in New York and San Francisco in addition to two mobile booths that tour the country, she said.

Although StoryCorps’ 40-minute interviews are conducted primarily in English, some participants choose to tell their stories in their native tongues, from Mandarin to Russian, Geis said.

Most who turned up for the Napa recording sessions brought a spouse, friend or relative with whom to co-conduct the interview as a StoryCorps member stood by to record the conversations. Wednesday’s sessions were the result of StoryCorps’ so-called “Memory Loss Initiative,” a movement to “support and encourage people with memory loss to share their stories,” according to the organization’s Web site.

Celine Regalia, program director of Adult Day Services, said Wednesday’s participants use the ADS day program and an early stage memory loss program offered there.

“When people start having memory problems, they lose bits and pieces of their history. ... To tell their stories for perpetuity really means a lot to them,” she said. “Sometimes, these (life) stories get lost as people pass.”

Based in New York, StoryCorps has grown to more than 23,000 recordings strong since its inception in 2003. One of them now belongs to Rudy and Kathleen Zannini, who moved to the Napa Valley in 1992.

“We met on a blind date in ’53, and our first date was at the Warfield Theater on Market Street,” Rudy Zannini said.

The pair married in 1955 and built their careers in education — with him working as an athletic director and basketball coach and her taking up a teacher’s assistant position for hearing-impaired students.

Rudy Zannini, 75, recalled the large Italian community present in Calistoga in the early ’60s. He said he and his wife decided to retire in the Napa Valley after falling in love with the area decades ago, when they brought their children to Calistoga’s now-defunct vacation spot, Canary Cottages.

The Library of Congress will also soon house the story of a longtime Napa couple, Robert and Betty Sweet.

Married in 1944, the Sweets moved to the Napa Valley more than 40 years ago, some of Robert’s family — the Willems — have been in the area since the turn of the last century, according to his wife. 

The two first came together during World War II in Elk Harbor, Wash., at. Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, when Sweet was stationed there and she landed a secretarial job at the base.

“I thought he was cute. ... I had a date with his friend and he went along. ... After he found out where I lived, I couldn’t get rid of him,” she joked.

The couple had 11 children, two of whom died at very young ages. Today, the Sweets boast 44 grandchildren and eagerly await the birth of their 36th great-grandchild, who is expected in July.

Based in New York and founded by Dave Isay — an esteemed radio documentary producer — StoryCorps captures stories like the Sweets’ for posterity.

Rebekah Weeman, who leads the ADS Mind Boosters program, said StoryCorps’ Memory Loss Initiative is intended to bring out the stories of people like Robert Sweet, who was diagnosed with a form of dementia two years ago.

“So many people living with memory concerns experience little losses every day,” said Rebekah Weeman, who leads the ADS Mind Boosters program. “The thought that each of their stories is archived (and) preserved offers hope that long after we have all gone, their stories will have the potential to touch the lives of generations to come.”