Sunday, September 13, 2009

Blog-ability: My Grandmother's Journal




My paternal grandmother was a remarkable woman. She was a woman of profound faith and keen observation. That this is true has rung especially true to me since I began reading her journal for 1960, the year I was born.
My sister found the journal among some of Grandma’s things and brought it to me. She called it a treasure. And so it is.
The entries begin, of course, on New Year’s Day, which was her wedding anniversary. How she and Grandpa celebrated their day is described, along with the weather, the news of the day, and a host of other things.
It continues, not daily, but frequent entries about things that even these years later are interesting. In her flowing script she records her thoughts on things ordinary and remarkable, things mundane and things spiritual.
There is such depth and such detail.
Among the entries: the weather the day I was born. What flowers bloomed longest that spring. She records my baby milestones - what I did and when I did it but more than that, she records her particular observations about those things.
It really is amazing to read. Reading it has motivated me to do this blog. Maybe a computerized version of her journal will meet the need I feel to record, as she did, the goings on in my life.
I am not tempted to do this recording of things the old fashioned way. My penmanship is not so handsome as hers nor do I have her patience. The occasional few paragraphs about life’s events, though, I think I can handle.
My observations will hardly be so keen as hers, but this will allow me to record certain thoughts and ideas for my own granddaughter, who is now two, and those grandchildren, who, I hope, are to come.


1 comment:

  1. I always thought she was your paternal grandmother! I had that all mixed up. I love the pictures.

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