Now Things Are Rolling

I had always heard that if you are going to write, make sure it's on a topic that you know about. Have you ever read an article or book, and while reading it you wondered where in the world "some of this came from"? I have, and it's so sad as I would really get interested in what was going on and then be blown out of the water by erroneous facts or well meaning intentions that went bad.

I think that's what was my greatest fear in doing the first part of this book, especially the last several chapters. While not growing up in an alcoholic home or being around alcoholism, I had and have NO clue what the homelife is like, let alone knew how to write a storyline around it. While it wasn't really talked about by my grandparents or aunts and uncles, I'm slowly learning about the issues and things my grandmother and her immediate family went through at the hands of her father. As I listened to a cousin, who lived with her father at her grandmother's house (my g-grandmother), I was truly amazed at not only what had gone on, but how a "generational curse" can continue on until someone makes a conscious effort to break the cycle. I remember smiling when hearing that my g-grandmother would always pass the gift of Jesus on to this particular cousin by one simple act. She would hold her granddaughter's face, look her in the eye, and smile before saying, "Remember, Jesus loves you.". As simple as that.

Mamaw had great faith and trusted in Whom she believed in. As I have learned about her from those that remember her best, I truly now can see how the alcoholism ran the lives of those living in the household. How it etched a daily way of life into the lives of those trying to escape the presence of the one who was the alcoholic, not to mention carried over into their own homes and those of their childrens' homes decades later. It really gives a new meaning to, "Train up a child in the way it should go and it will not soon depart from it." If you train a child to be fearful, they will be fearful. If you train up a child to be loving, they will be loving. The longer the training, the more ingrained it will be, thus becoming a part of their very personality long into the adulthood and senior years. These same stories are now what's opening my eyes to snippets of conversations with my grandmother decades ago and her feelings towards drinking and alcohol.

All this to say, Matthew Conner not only is a complex person, but someone with a complex problem that is shoved onto his family as well. They don't want it but are powerless to its effects. Putting all that into words, into a viable working story, when you have never lived it or been a part of such a lifestyle can be almost impossible. Didn't God say, though, "All things are possible with Him"? That's how I viewed it as I wrote on Matthew's story, praying the entire time. As things began to slowly pan out, it became easier and now the whole story is rolling along nicely.

In the next chapter, I believe it's Chapter Nine, will be the introduction of "Alexandria Ford". It took a little bit to figure out a last name as I wanted it to be a regional name but not a family name. Then I remembered the family name of a dear cousin of mine and adopted it as "Alexandria's" last name. As I stated in an earlier blog, "Alexandria" will be based on my distant cousin Lieta. I am so excited to write her story, yet scared at the same time. So, as with Matthew's story, I'll be doing a lot of praying and seeking God's wisdom in what to write and how to write it. Research on Aplastic Anemia, what Lieta died from, has been interesting and will require me to talk to a cousin or two in the medical field to make sure the medical aspect (illness and symptoms) is as accurate as possible. It'll require me to make a few more phone calls to Lieta's siblings to hopefully jar their memories of her last year and what she went through... how they knew she was as sick as she was. As special as it will be to write her story, I pray I do it justice.