Originally published 21 April 2020
Two weeks into the corona virus shut down, I finished typing up all my notes on families in the Town of Acerra. There are more families to be researched, but I’m taking a break and working on some of those projects that never seem to make it to the top of the pile.
It took six years, but I finally wrote about my sister Ellie. She was four years older than me and we were best friends growing up. We drifted apart when I got married and she started working nights. We’d committed to do a better job of keeping in touch when two weeks later she slipped on the ice, broke her ankle, had surgery, went to the nursing home to recover, and then was gone. I inherited her journals and letters and I finally went through them all (with a few crying breaks) and wrote her story.
Shortly after her funeral, I interviewed my other siblings for their stories about Ellie and I thought I’d gotten a pretty poor response, but as I was going over my notes, I found some gems. I thought I didn’t have much to work with but I ended up with 18 pages of text. Also, as I was reading Ellie’s journals and letters, I found that some things I thought were true, were not. It was a good experience and I’m glad I did it.
I’ve now moved on to the next project – organizing my photos on my computer. Previously I’d scanned all the photos and stored them on DVDs and CDs, now they are on the computer and I’m double checking to make sure I have them all. I don’t. I’m missing one here and there and then I’m missing all the photos for two of my nieces and one of my nephews. Back to the scanner.