Tag
To me, Elsie Jean Coleman was my grandmother’s sister, a great aunt. To my great grandfather, Jeremiah Donovan, Elsie was ‘dearest beloveth daughter’. Three letters in my grandmother’s papers from Elsie’s estate have flipped my thinking about Elsie from aunt to daughter, and made me consider the notion of dutiful daughter.
Last month I received a letter from my niece. ‘Guess What! We officially have 5 recipes in our family recipe book!’ She was writing to update me on her new recipe journal, which was a Christmas gift from me. We started writing to each other during the pandemic lockdowns and it delights me that this way of connecting hasn’t fizzled out. Now there is a new shared interest: handwritten recipes.
It was the last weeks of February 2023 when I noticed the tinge of autumnal colours whispering the end of summer. The late ripening and first harvesting of red tomatoes after Valentine’s Day confirmed just how lukewarm the summer had been. Read more
Amid the first winter of the COVID-19 pandemic, I mailed two drawings of a garden scene to my seven-year-old niece (one coloured in, the other black and white). I asked her to add to a story I started about fairies in the garden and requested that she colour the black and white picture and return it. We exchanged a few drawings and developed the fairy story before our collective effort fizzled out.
During the second winter of the pandemic, in-between lockdowns four and five, I unexpectedly received an email from my niece (via her mother’s inbox) with a word document attached and a simple message.
Letter to Jack Meagher from Maureen and Cynthia Meagher June 1952
Letter to Dorothy Meagher from Terence Meagher c.1950
When was the last time you did a jigsaw puzzle? The family archive in my spare room is the ultimate games room to me. Boxes upon boxes of various pieces waiting to be put together to create a new understanding of my family's collective history.
What Will Be looks back at people, places and travel and uncovers stories hidden in diaries, letters, and photos. It pieces together obvious clues and obscure details; reveals the personalities of people we used to know and those we could not have known; and re-tells the stories that have been forgotten or hidden. Tell me your thoughts and put a piece or two in the puzzle while you're at it.