I mentioned in an earlier post that I found a manuscript of a novel my mother started in the early 1970s. I’m converting it to a word document and hope to work with my sisters to finish it.
I’m taking my time and savouring this project. I don’t know why I didn’t do this as soon as I found it in her papers in 2007, after she passed. I asked her every few years if I could read it, and she always said, “Maybe someday” or “When I finish it.”
It's like a time capsule, a snapshot of my mother at the time. She uses familiar names and phrases. Her style of writing is, … no I guess it’s my style of writing that is very much like hers. Run-on sentences, overuse of the ellipsis mark, starting sentences with the word 'And", and obscure words. Surprising spelling mistakes or choices, but my favourite revelation is our description of a handsome man is identical.
She writes in the first person and I can tell when she wrote it as she says it was two years after her one and only trip to England and she mentions a new granddaughter with the same name as her first granddaughter, who was born in 1972.
I’m only on page 18, but I’m having a ball and delighting in this new insight to my mother. This sample page shows what I'm working with. A simple scan, even using OCR, isn't saving me from working on it paragraph by paragraph, just to input it into the computer. I'm loving every minute of it.

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4 Comments

  1. I love this! What a great way to spend time with your sisters. This sounds like a fun, productive and lovely project to remember your mother and bring out your creative (and editorial) juices! Keep us posted please. I’d love to know more about the story too.

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  2. Oh this is amazing! What a find and treasure. I wonder what little insights you will discover about your mother that you didn’t know before. This sounds like a uniquely delightful challenge, and I also love that you can share the experience with your sisters. Sounds like you are in for some seriously good quality time with family. Enjoy!! And yes, please keep us posted!

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