This painting means the world to me.
It sits in my bedroom, leaning against a wall and I guess, looking at it, no one would have any idea of the story behind it.
I was very close to my grandmother. Her name was Joyce and she was … a lot. She was gentle, she never raised her voice at me, but I would have done anything for her praise. She was an artist, she taught me to paint and draw. She taught me to find the magic everywhere and to turn everyday life into an adventure. She was the wife of a hardworking businessman and could be very well to do and polite. She went to church every Sunday and ironed everything. She was also a water diviner and was sometimes drawn to lay her hands on people to heal them.
As her first born grandchild, I probably got the best of her. She didn’t need to discipline me or ask me to clean my room for the hundredth time, she just got to spend quality time with me.
We would talk frankly about life, including the fact that she would die one day. And over the years she had begun to do that thing elderly humans do – get smaller in every way. She was slowing down and growing down.
For once in my young life I decided to be prepared. I invited her to paint something with me, something I could have long after she went.
Of course she was 100% up for it and she had everything we needed.
It took a few sessions. I was less particular than she was – I had less to lose, being A) a writer, not a painter like she was and B) definitely not a perfectionist (she was a Virgo of you get my drift).
We turned it into a fun process and after a few weeks we had this bright, passionate painting that I will deeply value for the rest of my life.
I want my children to know this story too, that this was the product of two highly creative women, a grandmother and her grandchild, who adored each other and had a lot of fun together.
Do you have something like this in your life with a story behind it that matters to you? It could be anything – a teacup, a tool, a stone.
If you do, think about including it in your story. Think about telling your people the memories that make that important.
Go ahead and write that story, honestly and from the heart, as all the best stories are told.
And if you’d like to share the story of your special thing with me, and with our community, please email it to me, or share it in comments here. I’d love to read it and I know it would be inspiring for others to read too.
Write it today, tomorrow, whenever you’re ready, but make a plan to write it, because (as a someone said to me recently):
If not you, who? If not now, when?
Charlotte x
PS if you’d like to dive deeper into the process of writing your memoir, you can do it with me on my online course Write Your Memoir.
Charlotte Squire 