Living Through History- Create your own personal memoir.

As a little girl, I remember asking questions about the Great Depression, and World War II to my grandparents and my mother. They told me stories about things they remembered, but of course, over time their memories had gotten a little fuzzy. My grandmother told me about being hungry during the Depression and trying to get by with my grandfather taking odd jobs while she stayed home with a sick baby and a toddler. I knew that living through those lean times shaped them to become the people that I knew as a child. They saved everything and didn’t let even scraps of paper, fabric or metal go to waste. At the time, I thought it was silly, but I never really got to hear their stories of how they experienced that time.

Later, my mother shared with me that a boy she graduated from high school with had a crush on her. I know they went for a few dates but there was nothing serious and I guess there was no chemistry, at least on my mom’s side. That young man went off to fight in World War II and died in the war. I remember hearing the story, and I remember Mom reminiscing about this young man at one of her class reunions, but I do not know anything else about him, not even his name.

During these past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about my grandmother. I remember when I was a teenager, grandma invested in some nice wigs to wear to church on Sunday. Her hair was very thin and had gotten to the point she couldn’t do anything with it anymore. Grandma told me that she got very sick as a teenager with a high fever and that at one point it crossed her mind that she might not make it. She did, but shortly thereafter her hair started thinning and she had a lot of dental problems. I think she told me that because I was curious about her wigs and her false teeth. Maybe she told me to reassure me that neither of these things was genetic. It wasn’t until decades later that it occurred to me that she would have been a teenager during the Spanish Flu Pandemic. Could that have been what made her sick?

We are living through an extraordinary time right now. This is the first huge pandemic to hit this country in decades and even though it seems difficult now, there are things that are happening that we will want to remember or record for the future. One of my sons is in the thick of it as a first responder. Two of my other sons are trying to take a sit-down sandwich shop and make it as a take out and delivery store under orders from the Governor. My daughter was laid off when the craft store she was working in was forced to close. My son’s entire second semester including classes, a spring musical and the entire track season was canceled as was a trip to Montreal. And my daughter will probably not have a track season at all as a high school freshman.

Unbelievably, this entire episode is happening during Lent and yet the church is closed with no way to attend in person and receive the Eucharist. It looks like Easter is going to be pretty bleak as well. I never thought I would see the government close the churches with the blessing of the bishops in my lifetime.

There are some highlights though. I love my family being all together. I love not having to rush around everywhere, and I love the extra time I have to read, Pray, practice, blog and even take long walks with my granddaughter and my dog. In many ways, this is a beautiful time.

I want to remember it. I want to be able to share this time with my granddaughter when she is old enough to remember it, and have these memories written down for posterity somewhere.

Maybe some of you feel the same? To that end, I made a little PDF memory book for my own family and it’s available for digital download. Download once and reprint as many times as you like. Remember what this time was for you and your family as we survive the Coronavirus of 2020.

This can also be a good writing prompt for the kids as an English or even history project.