Inspiration!

Do you ever wish you could have listened better to the stories an older friend or relative shared with you? We have all been busy with our lives, caught up amid living and caring for others until we get to a point where we long for another chance to understand more about those special people in our lives that are long gone. The perpetual thoughts cycle and it only brings up more questions than answers. How do we then fill in the blanks that were left behind? This is exactly the process that led to the creation of "The Philadelphia Matriarch".

The story has been carried inside of me for a lifetime. Hearing bits and pieces of my grandmother’s upbringing from her directly and other family members were remarkably familiar. As a child I never questioned it, or if I did, an adult would provide an answer. It inherently became the fabric and essence of our family heritage. Who am I after all, to challenge such a dynamic? It is accepted and lived every waking moment without a second thought. Only until it has gone do we confront ourselves and look deeper into the truth.  We are left with the perplexing task of distinguishing fact from fiction.

This journey began with a desire to draft her story. I only knew the abbreviated version and needed to dig deeper to learn more. Of course, it was initially going to be non-fiction, but that is where it shut me down every time. How could I tell this story in all truth, to string it together sensibly for the reader, for me, for the family? There were too many unanswered questions.

The resolution was to write the story as an historical fiction book. Those gaps and disconnects in the story I knew could be perfectly embellished and pieced together. I did not want to take away from the truth, but it was a good place to begin getting the words onto paper. I scribbled out a limited outline. It became more of a timeline when it came to researching the era about which I was writing. A fascinating step behind the scenes into the Gilded Age and up through the Roaring Twenties as if being transported back into her life.

Prior to doing this research I had always pondered about her mother’s intentions, my great grandmother, and why she did not try harder to find her daughter. I wondered if it just had not been more convenient for her to let her go and this was just the story being told to brush the ugly truth beneath the carpet.  You know, when as an adult, you begin to challenge what has been conveyed to you. It was an eye-opening and enlightening voyage that not only confirmed her story, but demonstrated the importance of how understanding a century’s past vastly differs in the cultural standards and norms we live in currently. Was I too guilty of judging this woman in the same vein as those earlier had done?

Initially my writing and research took place in the early hours of the morning. After hours sequestered in the dark, quiet writing room, I would emerge as if from the era I had been studying. The unanswered questions or assumptions made over a lifetime had finally become crystal clear. Inspired by her stories and through the lens of history this remarkable character developed into the strength and epitome of a true matriarch. Born of this curiosity comes the life story of "The Philadelphia Matriarch".