This evening my first
grandchild, Maggie, graduates from high school.
If you read Grandma’s Letters from Africa, you’ll
remember Maggie, that little babe I wrote letters to from Africa.
She’s all grown up now. How
can that be?
The words of Sunrise, Sunset tread softly in my mind and heart, and I change a few words for Maggie:
Is this the little girl I
carried?
I don’t remember getting
older, when did she?
When did she get to be a
beauty?
When did she grow to be
so tall?
Wasn’t it yesterday when
she was small?
What words of wisdom can
I give her? How can I help to ease her way?
Sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly flow the days.
Seedlings turn overnight
to sunflowers,
Blossoming even as we
gaze.
(adapted from Bock and Harnick’s song in Fiddler on the Roof)
Graduation: a successful completion.
But we also call the
ceremony a “commencement,” a beginning, a start, a launch.
However we define it,
it’s a major turning point in life.
What do you remember
about your high school graduation? Or your children’s graduation?
What vignettes can you
write to entertain your memoir’s readers?
Does or did your family
have traditions surrounding graduations?
What wisdom can you pass
on to your readers about completion
and new beginnings?
What stories can you tell
to help ease their way?
Be sure to include
photos! They can be priceless.
