The Story

Everything has a beginning and an end. My transformation into an author began with The Great Promise . People become authors for various reasons, for me it was a “light bulb” moment when I found a typed letter.

In 2008 I was given a box containing several of my parental grandparent’s personal documents. When I removed the lid, I stared at the aged items, my eyes probing for the book that was my grandfather’s World War One journal. I carefully removed documents until a corner of the reddish-brown ledger peeped out from overlaying paper. Plucking it from the confines of the box I held it in my hands. With concerned care I opened it to a page yellowed by age. I started reading the faded penciled script written by my grandfather’s hand so long ago.

A flood of emotion welled within me. First was the realization that I was holding a piece of history, then comprehension that the document was written by my grandfather almost 100 years previously. In an attempt to read a few entries, I realized that many words were impossible to identify. I knew I had to do something In order to grasp the significance of each journal entry. My solution was to scan in each page, then enlarge the image to facilitate in the identification of certain words.

As I navigated through the entries, their detail and flow started to release their compelling nature. Moved by what I was reading, I pressed on each night for a month until the transcription was complete.

During the transcription I noticed that the journal entries ended in May of 1915. Wondering why, I returned to the box of documents. I was searching for military records so I examined each piece of paper lifted from the confines’ of the box. One document caught my eye, it was typed on onion skin paper and titled, “I Had a Dream The Other Night”. Little did I know that this two page letter would become the “light bulb” moment that would alter the next four years of my life.