My Grandmother Newton (on my Mother's side) passed away about 4 months after I had given birth to my first child, Daniel. Danny was her first great-grandchild and she saw photographs of him send to her in the mail, but was never able to hold that precious baby boy. To this day, that breaks my heart.
On a lighter note, since this project is based on Grandma Newton's Diaries....my Husband came up with a great acronym: The GNP....The Grandma Newton Project. My husband always has a way of making me smile (or sometimes groan and hit him in the arm.)
Next month I travel to visit my Mother and collaborate with her on this venture. She provides so many insights on events and things about her mother that I never knew. She is also invaluable for identifying people my Grandmother referred to that I have no clue who they are or where they fit in with the scheme of things. Also, she has several old photographs that I am anxious to sift through and choose some for the book.
The diaries span from 1969 to 1985. If she kept diaries as a younger woman, the family is not aware of that....these are from the time period when she was a Grandmother. They don't show her early life on the farm, but they still are quite interesting and shine a light on a perspective of a person from an older generation. Some of the entries portrayed a certain sadness of how people treat "old people". It is my hope that people reading this book will come to the realization, or pleasantly reminded, that we can always learn from the wisdom of those who have gone before us.
So, I guess I have diverted my attention enough from the project for today....I should get back to it.....1973 awaits my attention.
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One can only learn from the older generations if one takes the time, and has the patience to listen to them. We have noticed ourselves that in this age of speed, i.e. seemingly wanting to know, do, experience, say, think everything RIGHT NOW, the younger generations are not willing to take the time to let their elders fumble for the right words to come to express their thoughts, or even to answer a question that has been asked. That seeming "empty space" they think needs to be filled up with something - another question, another topic, another SOMETHING, just so it's not silence. A little patience would go a long way towards understanding, and who knows....someone might learn something!
ReplyDeleteI have been so busy on this project....have not taken the time to look at my blogs. Thank-you for your comments and YES there is so much we can learn from the generations that have gone before us! I am learning so much just from seeing my Grandma's perspective on past events. Working on this book has truly been inspiring. Making progress and hope to complete and publish sometime by July. (Next month....Wow!)
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