Future Research Projects
In the process of beginning this memoir project while cleaning out my deceased mother's belongings, I collected many items that will add pieces to Millie's puzzle. I comment on those here to help students think about original research materials that are lying around their houses.
Logs
Over
the years, Mom kept daily logs that were brief jottings of the day's events, the
weather, and any important business transactions. To date, I have located
18, with a couple containing entries for two years. I had intended to work
with Mom on the meaning of some of these notes, but now I will use the letters
and the other ephemera listed here to make meaning of things I have forgotten.
Pictures
For
Mom's funeral, I collected family pictures. In the process, I realized
that many of these stimulate my memories or, at least, prompt questions and
speculation. As a side project, as I work with the various images, I will
return ones to relatives pictured in them. With so many families dividing
and re-melding--my own included--collections such as these can make a real
difference for the second and third generations.
Of special value is the scrapbook that Mom and I worked together to create for a Jones family reunion (her maiden name of Mildred Lenor Jones) in West Virginia. She and her cousin in Florida were the only two who couldn't attend, so we decided to at least send her in pictures. Many of the captions are in her own words. After the reunion, the family returned the scrapbook to us.
Correspondence to Mom
While
going through some of Mom's things, I found postcards and a letter her mother
sent her. Memorabilia from her mother is rare, so I will use these, I'm sure. I
also found her mother's obituary as well as her father's, along with a picture
of the VA hospital, where he died. These items have already jogged my
memory and the newspaper has placed dates to them.
Correspondence from Mom
In
the right corner of this picture is a note from Franchelle Cliff, a family
friend who had correspondence with Mom for years. For some wonderful
reason, Franchelle had saved Mom's letters over the past 30 years, including
from recent years when she had to dictate them to a helper. Even a cursory
glance demonstrates that she had beautiful penmanship and was a fluent writer,
even though her education stopped at eighth grade. I have looked at a few
of these letters, but have had to put them away because she wrote so very much
like she talked. At a later point, they will be invaluable, especially to
help give meaning to the logs.
Christmas Letters
Mom
loved to correspond with people, especially over the holidays. She
regarded that as a sort of obligation, and she took responsibility not only for
her own Christmas correspondence but for labeling my letters as well. When
her eyesight failed, I suggested that we resort to Christmas letters.
Though I had always hated to receive these "brag sheets," I now saw them as an
opportunity. Mom could fold them, and her helpers could affix the
computer-generated mailing labels to envelopes. She participated in the
drafting, including in last year's, which arrived at homes with an upbeat
prognosis the day she had her stroke. The dates on these and the quick
overview of the years will be very helpful to work with. (I will continue the
tradition, and include her friends on my list because they have been so
supportive this last year.)
Family Memories
My cousin, Terry, shown here at the dinner after my mom's funeral, is one family member that I want to interview at length. As I realized at the dinner the night before the funeral when he moved into his Irish storyteller mode, he has memories of Mom that precede mine by almost a decade. He and his sister (now deceased) spent weeks on end with my dad and mom in the years before I was born.
Sympathy Notes
My family received many lovely sympathy cards, often accompanied by notes, as well as phone calls and over 30 emails to an account I dedicated to that purpose. Many of the messages included favorite memories of Mom. In fact, one by a former housecleaner was so well-stated that the priest included it in his homily. Here, is a unique way, I think to learn how others regarded her.
