What Will You Be Remembered For?

“I am doing a great deal of research for what will become my eighth book. This new endeavor came about by sheer accident. Lately, I like a good challenge when writing a new book. Maybe I like to write outside my comfort zone every so often. Well, this is what is currently
challenging me. I actually put the book I was writing on hold for the sake of the new, more challenging one.

It all started quite innocently while surfing eBay for what I call treasure gems, be they autographs, old magazines, historical finds, or whatever. Well, this particular time, I came across a diary from 1923 in Hagerstown, Maryland. I was intrigued by the year, and by the fact that a girl or woman had written the diary, which covered the entire year of

1923. Almost three hundred sixty pages were written out by hand in pencil, and fairly neatly, too.
Well, I won the auction for the diary, and as I began reading all about this unknown girl and became more intrigued, I decided to base a novel loosely on her and her times, revolving around a good mystery, of course.

What really caught my eye while reading the diary was how many of her family members passed away or became sick, and how many times she herself was very sick, during that year. Her father and a few relatives died between the ages of 46 and 68. I researched some children of that period who died at age ten or younger.

When I tried to research her last name, “Bloom,” to find out her true identity, I realized that many people are forgotten far too quickly after their passing. It took four hundred hours of research to find the dairy writer’s first name; the fact that she was twenty-one at the time; the names of her father, mother, brother, husband, and son. I was able to secure obituaries for all of them except her. I became consumed with finding out who this woman had been and who she became later in life, as her words in the diary intrigued me.

What I took away from my research was this:
• Every day should be lived as if it is your last on earth.
• Family and friends should be ultra-important in your life and should be seen regularly.
• We should reflect often on our lives and thank God every day for all the blessings we have.
• And last, we should strive to improve the state of humankind, if only in some small way, and look to be remembered for many years after we pass on.

In 1923, there were no televisions—only radios and Victrolas. Movies at a theater were a huge treat. Dancing was very big and enjoyable for this twenty-one-year-old and her friends. Much enjoyment was derived from canoeing, taking a ride in a 1920 Ford that would often break
down, and sitting with a boyfriend on a two-seated swing in the yard.

Miss Bloom’s days were filled with visiting and entertaining many relatives and friends, and cooking and baking pies and cakes for them was routine. You see, Miss Bloom led a very busy life in those days, as I realized that many people in that time period did. Life was so very
unpredictable in 1923, that it was as if they were chasing after as much as possible before it could slip away.”

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us”. —Albert Schweitzer

“There is a great lesson in this story. It shows how fortunate we are to be alive in the current period of time. You see, when Miss Bloom got sick, as she did several times that year, the doctor had to make many house calls over the course of the ten days it took her to recuperate.
Routine sicknesses that don’t set us back at all today robbed many of their lives in those days. I was happy to see that Miss Bloom did live to get married in her early twenties and had a son and a grandson, who were very prominent atto
eys and who, in turn, made huge impacts on
the world around them.

Miss Bloom quotes a great poet, James Russell Lowell: “Be noble, and the nobleness in others will rise in majesty to meet thine own.”
And she intrigued me further with another quote: “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”

“My message echoes hers: Pack as much as you can into this life with which you have been blessed!”
C-2011 JOHN PAUL CARINCI