Describing a life in 500 words
By the end of August I hope to have completed most of the text for the Website that records the cataloguing of all the graves in our local cemetery. As soon as it’s done I will post up the url because I’m starting to feel quite proud of it, but there’s a lot of hard work still to be done.
The original project plan was to select one or two of the older stones and research the life ‘behind the stone’. In other words we’d write up a short biog in no more than 500 words. In practice it’s almost impossible to describe a life in 500 words especially as we are including contributions made to the local and wider community, family, interests, career, and the journey that led to Leicester – particularly interesting as a lot of the graves are for people who survived pogroms and holocaust atrocities.
It soon became obvious that the word count was the least of my problems. There were too many interesting stories to tell. My job was to decide which names to include in this ever-growing list, but by definition, this also meant that I had to decide which names to omit because we just can’t produce over 900 individual stories. The problem is that everybody has got a story to tell. We may not all have had a long and dangerous physical journey to arrive where we are today but many of us have had long emotional journeys.
Side-headings
I’m giving the researched stories side-headings but that made me think about me. What side-headings would I give to my own story-so-far?
Teacher That would have to be there.
Writer I couldn’t miss that one off.
Mother Goes without saying but I’ve said it anyway!
Animal Lover I’ve rarely been without a pet throughout my life.
But would I include the more painful periods of my life?
Divorce It can’t be ignored.
Family Illness I couldn’t omit my husband’s stem cell transplant, my mother’s long and final illness, my daughter’s recent major operation, and then there’s my own struggle with agoraphobia as a teenager.
Not a Good Traveller That is very much a part of who I am but would it find it’s way into my story-so-far?
I suspect I would gloss over the negative, play up the positive and provide the reader with a ‘rose-tinted’ version of myself.
What side-headings would you give your life’s story-so-far?
Now that is a hard one, especially as some of our (my) weaknesses I can hardly admit to myself! I have often wondered how others will remember me, but I doubt I will ever know.
ReplyDeleteKeep up with the marvellous work. By the way have you come across a Richard or Abraham Casper, a relative of my husband's who lived in your neck of the woods?
That's another problem! Will our biogs be anywhere near how the person would have described themselves? Of course, we'll never know but I hope we get somewhere near.
DeleteI've checked our database but there is no one with the surname Casper buried in our cemetery, sorry.
Thanks for checking.
DeleteWhat a fascinating job - and so had to select who makes/doesn't make it in!!!
ReplyDeleteGlossing over the painful stuff would be incredibly tempting, but those tough losses often make us stronger or at least influence who we become. I'd probably have to add 'optimist' or 'total sap' to that list :)
I'm going to be honest with you now, Jemi. I don't know what 'total sap' means but having the side-heading 'optimist' has got to be a good one!
DeleteYou've missed off friend, organiser and mention of your generosity and resilience! For myself I'd pick some of the same ones as you, wife, mother, writer, animal lover but also put some of the things I love like the countryside, delphiniums and dangly earrings. Others might describe me totally differently! To give an impression of a whole person in 500 words is incredibly hard and how to choose who to include - I don't envy you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alex (and you always giving me lifts, I'd say you're the generous one!!) Dangly earrings! Yes! What a brilliant side-heading.
Deletetough to summarize in 500 words. Quite a task, but you have given it a lot of thought.
ReplyDeleteFor me - reader, writer, dreamer, traveler, and wife are key points I think
I'd love to read what you put under the side-heading 'dreamer', Joanne :-)
DeleteOh goodness, what a question. All those roles we ascribe to ourselves. I'm sure you have many more, once you begin thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteMine - I'd have to include daughter, student, wife, mother, divorcee, remarriage, widow, expert witness in child protection, child therapist, traveller, writer, and grandma!
What a question, indeed! Daughter, sister, wife, mother, student, programmer, technical writer, writer are the easy ones. The harder ones would be bullyee (if the word existed), unwilling keeper of secrets, social anxiety haver, .... ~Miriam
ReplyDeleteI think what you're doing is amazing Ros. I'm sure if the dead could speak they would be happy to be remembered. I have no idea what headings to put for my life probaly the daughter, mother,caregiver,blogger,ha ha I don't know.
ReplyDeleteYikes: Wife, mother, grandmother, cat owner, 2CV Driver, cancer survivor, family abuse survivor, both Jew & Christian, writer, loyal friend. But others might disagree
ReplyDeleteWife, dog/cat/bird mommy, friend, spiritual searcher, reader, adventurer, traveler, blog photographer and writer, nature and wild life lover. I just saw cancer survivor above, funny, I never think of myself as that, but I am. Oh, and of course, I am a person with type 1 diabetes, that I try hard to not let define my life. Sometimes it does, but that can't be helped.
ReplyDelete