Sharing passages again with Babu seemed to be the cure to what ailed me, and her. We read some of August twice now and we haven’t yet got through. She reads on the computer with really big font and I sit with her and scroll through. Reading with her today was like being on the…
Category: Reading her own memories
Reading with Babu
Babu has been fixated lately on the more glum things about being 99. And about the world. She complains more than she used to. By that I mean, she complains way less than she should but she never really used to complain at all. She hates that her hands are always cold and attributes it…
Update
I couldn’t believe it. I was looking at pictures from 1936, 37, 38, and I kept saying “I remember this day!” And the clearly organized notes on the back of most of the images verified it was true. I had read about, transcribed, and wrote about the days these images captured, in some ways better…
Sharing with Babu, Less is More
Taking care of someone who is nearly 99 takes constant readjustment. What she can do, what is good for her and in what amounts, differ even during the same day. I shared some passages with Babu again, and this time kept it shorter, telling her that’s all I had for today rather than asking her…
It’s a Thin Line
I haven’t shared much in the way of passages lately with Babu. In the way of excuses I have: I began the year with a pretty bad cold and wasn’t putting my germy laptop in front of Babu, then the first day I went to share the computer battery died, then I’ve been working a…
A Few Laughs and One Half of a Spoiler: Sharing Passages with Babu
When I share passages with Babu, she reacts to the funniest things and goes right by the things I think are interesting. She said she remembered the March 1936 flood but I believe it was barely and had little interest in talking about it or her picture taking antics. She did, however, ask about her…
Sharing The Start of 1936
It felt so good to sit down with Babu again and share these journals. She read January 1936 and I asked her what jumped out to her. She said she thinks she really liked going to Bay Path College. That put a smile on my face. I shared with her that I loved reading about…
Chatting with Babu, Nothing New or: Let’s Talk About Poop, Baby
I have changed the format of this blog slightly. I used to write a post summarizing the journals, then a post about the conversation with Babu, then a post with excerpts. I sometimes skip the middle one and I want you to know I’m still sharing these with her. It is my favorite part! I…
You Must Wait
The air was heavy with ghosts today and the pages of her 1935 journal were full of them. I sat across the breakfast table with Babu and she talked with so much emphasis about her friend, Ernestine Jones. She gets this tone to her voice when she’s expressing love, and her words go on just…
How Many Children Do You Have?
Common themes stay common themes, repeated stories will repeat, but change is obdurate. Now the story is told in a new way, with a twist. Babu always, as you, constant readers, know, tells the story of how her mother could only have one child. (This might be an inappropriate time to snicker but I’m…
A Piece of Creative writing.
I haven’t shared entries with Babu is a long time. It felt really good to do so today. Here is a piece of Creative Writing from Babu!! LOVE IT!!! Thursday, September 6th, 1934 One should be more quiet and more or less submissive on the day of confession, but to us that means comparatively little….
The Merging
Does your life eventually condense into just a few stories? The ones you still remember? The ones that won’t let you go? Nuances of a long life fade under the weight of so many years, so many memories. I talk like my grandmother has Alzheimer’s but she doesn’t. Yet she told me the same story…
transcribingmemory 