Believe In And Set Free Your Own Special Stories
Even as a child, words and sentences fascinated me. I wondered how a group of well placed words, a descriptive sentence or the planting of an idea grew into a story. But for me it took 50 years to bring forth fruit.
After raising a family and retiring from the banking business, I found the freedom to pursue creative writing in a small memoir writing group at the Valley Senior Center. This class is taught by a patient teacher, Virginia White.
When I think about how writing came to me, I’m reminded of my first son, John, who as a boy collected from the great outdoors leaves, rocks, bugs, feathers and tiny frogs. One day he tucked away in his dresser drawer a silky cocoon. Later, when I opened the drawer to put away clean socks, out flew a beautiful monarch butterfly. I think our memories are like that butterfly, tucked away in a special place until a wise teacher encourages us to open the drawer in our mind and out fly the unexpected memories.
As I wrote my family stories, each one reminded me of yet another character, incident or happening. Some stories flew across the miles to editors in New York, all but one to be rejected. Not to be discouraged, I began to make plans to self-publish a book for my family. It took three years of planning, editing and rewriting to put together my family story weaved through the Great Depression and World War II. After several meetings, a small-town publisher agreed to print and bind my book. Along the way, I made hard decisions and met challenges to the best of my abilities. Sometimes discouraged, wondering why I thought this a good idea, I remembered these words from my teacher: “Don’t listen to negative thoughts. Believe in yourself.”
My small book, “Remembrance,” brings me rewards as family and friends thank me for preserving a slice of history, one family’s struggles through the ‘30s and ‘40s in a small town in Palouse Country.
I encourage anyone who has waited, sit down and write your memoirs now. Writing my book made me look at my whole life in a new perspective. It made me see that even though the times were difficult, a lot of positive and wonderful things happened, too.
Each of us has tucked away a story just waiting to be set free, like the monarch butterfly - a story that comes from the heart.
MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a Your Turn column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write Your Turn, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.