transcribingmemory

Advice to Partner Caretakers

Yesterday we had a difficult time with Babu. For a while now, she just hasn’t been quite herself. No eminent danger, she’s in no pain, and she will be 99 on the 11th, so we must take that into account when we see that she is sleeping most of the day and having low appetite…

If You Look Closely Enough

…you will find some simple things she writes pure magic. Thursday, September 2nd, 1937 Tonight I went to confession. It was good to be there in the friendly dark. I lit a candle for myself too. Stopped in at Zosh’s and met some people from Detroit and Buffalo. Drobe walked a part of the way…

Writing Wednesday #2: Release

What would you do if a genie told you he could wave a magic wand, (I know I’m mixing my metaphors here, but bear with me,) and you could write creatively, what ever you wanted, as your only job? You’ve passed all the rites to get you to adulthood: graduated, got two degrees, had a…

Pining and Pined For

We are reading the fourth year of our diary journey through Babu’s life and the boys Babu falls for seem to come and go from her life. Her first crush we read about, Drobey, is still around, but she steadfastly no longer feels the same as she used to about him. W.B.Z. stays from from…

Septemeber, 1937

And just like that it’s autumn again. Babu writes: The leaves are just beginning to turn and the world is so alive and radiant. This is the swan song of fall. The month begins with her wish to be back at school. She goes to visit BPI and misses what must seem to her like…

Sunday Share: This is Youth: Nepal, Travels, and A Blog Monetized

This week’s Sunday Share is an exciting one. I have been following This is Youth for a little while now but I actually stopped and spent some time on the blog recently. It involves other topics, but mostly it is one of those delish travel blogs. Oh how I love those. This one has an…

Excerpts, August, 1937 “Nothing Exciting Happens Now”

There isn’t much that excites me more about this process then finding evidence in these pages of stories she has told me many times. Babu had basically one job in her lifetime and she has talked to me about it many times. She worked for Hitchcock and Company as a secretary. They had offices in…

The Case of the Wooden Shoes

I will warn you before you read any further. This case may never be solved. It may live on in your memory, niggling away, as your soul searches for answers for years to come. Those answers may never come. In August, 1937, Babu writes: Monday, August 9th, 1937 Did my first day’s work. Seven hours. …

August, 1937

Her life has shifted. There was a rite of passage, clear as day. She is no longer a child. Not in habits, not in routine, or responsibilities. She is still pinning for Benny: On the way home thought I saw Benny. I wonder? Oh, will I ever get over him. When I’m alone I think…

Writing Wednesdays #1: Sucker for Alteration

This is the new weekly installment: Writing Wednesdays! Why? Because I am a sucker for alteration? No. Because I can feel myself filling up, flooding with concepts, inspirations, and ruminations on this craft of mine that I still know nothing about. Because I write to learn, mostly about myself, and I need to reflect and…

Miss Drude

I waited for Babu to graduate before writing this post but I’ve been gathering data on this and thinking about this post for a while. I was a teacher for 10 years so I pay attention to her teachers and what education was like in the 30s. (It seems pretty much the same, by the…

The Dark Side: In Honor of Norma Harry

I write a lot about contrasts in this blog. That is life. The good and evil. Sometimes just the kinda good and kinda bad. As a writer, I look for structure. I look for patterns and the way this life story is told. It’s eerie that those patterns happen, in non intentional nonfiction. She isn’t…