In Her Own Words...

Dear Diary,

My dear grandmother passed away on this day back in 1988.  I remember how devastated I was at the news.  Last December when I was visiting her daughter she showed me a common book my aunt had kept that mentions my grandmother's death.  I was moved to tears as I read her words.  My grandmother had gone to stay with Auntie after her last two babies were born to help out.  They were very close.

Seeing her handwriting, with the little circles that dot the i's, was so moving.  My mother's handwriting was very similar, it was a style of the 1940's.  Auntie was my father's closest sibling.  When Dad came home injured from the war, Mom stayed with her.  But it was seeing that last line that moved me the most.  Gram was always there... for everyone.

Our words are important.  Even after all these years, these simple ink lines can elicit such raw emotion.  Auntie's description of her father, a man I never knew, was so poignant.  I included it in the family chronicle because it brought the man to life for me.  Yes, our handwritten reflections do matter and it is, in part, why this daily journal is such an important part of my life now.  Maybe someday, in the distant future, someone will read these words and be inspired.  Binding each year into journals gives me my "common books" to pass along.