
Before translating the contents to me (though she admitted she knew them by heart so was really reciting rather than translating) grandma told me all she knew of the back story. A relative on my grandma's side of the family had written the letters in the latter part of the 19th century (I named the relative Sankatsu and moved the time period to the beginning of the 19th century for the book). There were numerous scraps of incomplete letters, and two whole letters, one of which told us what grandma already knew - Sankatsu's sister had been sold by her father and the two girls hadn't seen each other for many years. The fragments and second complete letter painted a picture that sparked my imagination. Family rumours, handed down over many decades, added to that picture.
My grandmother had her theories about what had happened to the two sisters. She was still thinking up new ones, she said. She shared all of them with me. Some detective work and research, and a lot of my grandma's imagination, transformed those pages of writing into the preliminary pages for "My Dearest Osan".
Hello, you have a very nice page. I might mention that as a school counselor I had quite a few Japanese exchange students to work with in Florida. The only two names I can remember were June Camagoochi and Akiko Kamikura, but that was twenty years ago.
ReplyDeleteDr Robert E McGinnis
PS I am sure I have don't have the names spelled right after twenty years.
http://paradisefamilyreaders.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteMy blog spot.
Dr McGinnis
Hi Marianne,
ReplyDeleteI love the cover to your book and your blog looks lovely with the Van Gogh background. He's a favourite artist of mine.
Hi Marianne,
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting and following. Nice blog, will be back to read more. Following you on nwb.
Family stories have their own charm, don't they? A great cover of the book. I love it!
ReplyDeleteThank you, everyone, for commenting on my blog! I didn't know I had any comments until I just looked at my page - I am so new to blogging!
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to exploring your blogs and getting to know you.