This year, for instance—if my mother were still with us—we would have had a double celebration, for today would have been her birthday as well. Though I'm not sure I would have followed the suggestions making the rounds in Gena Philibert-Ortega's recent article on the GenealogyBank blog—my mother was far from the typical mom—I did recently stumble upon a reminder of something to do to keep her memory alive.
In her article, Gena quoted from one professional genealogist who discussed what to do when your mom did not provide those "rare occasions where an ancestor left a diary." Among other details—my mom was not the avid cook so many remember from their childhood, leaving food preferences a non-starter for any getting-to-know-you family discussions—she just happened to be one of those "rare occasions" of the maternal diarist. I actually have a stack of journal entries—and had forgotten about them. They were tucked away with some genealogical notes from years ago, likely when life got in the way of my determined goal of transcribing her writings.
Perhaps, since I have no way to wish her a happy birthday now—let alone the dual wishes of a happy Mother's Day—getting back to the task of transcribing her work would be an adequate alternate. She did, after all, have an interesting—though incredibly different—life.
Photographs, above, from the portfolio collection held privately by the author.
On Mother's Day five years ago my daughter in law gave me a ride to church. As we sat in the pew, her water broke, and we made a beeline for the hospital where my grandson was born, six weeks early, two hours later. Quite the surprise and now he shares his Mother's Day birthday with his other gramma, too!
ReplyDeleteMiss Merry - that is a wonderful story, so much to celebrate there.
DeleteWell, that's a story you'll never forget, Miss Merry! I wonder if your grandson will someday tell that to his grandkids.
DeleteThis post stopped me in my tracks. My mother, born in 1914, also had a May birthday that fell on Mother's Day every....7 years is it? Her life was also very different from most of the women in her huge rural SC clan. And she kept a few journals; most of these were lost, but I retrieved a few. Just yesterday the thought popped into my head that I should take another look at them, and transcribe some of the hopeful or tender passages. Confirmation.
ReplyDeleteLisa, how amazing to hear these parallel strands in our stories! Yes, do take a look at those journals again, and transcribe them. I sometimes like to think that, taking the broad perspective of the entire journal, a bigger picture will emerge, even though the subject is someone with whom you are so familiar.
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