Grazia Lecci the inspiration for "My Love for Stories" journal page holding her gift from the Ottawa Public Library (Main Branch), November 2010
Do you remember Mrs. Gracia Lecci, the librarian from my elementary school days who inspired “My Love for Stories” journal page? If you don’t, here’s a brief re-cap. While I was exhibiting the piece at the Ottawa Public Library last fall, her colleagues decided to buy it for her as a surprise gift! Since then Grazia and I have kept in touch and agreed to meet one day to catch up on things…
On a chilly December day last month we finally got together and chatted over a warm cup of coffee exchanging stories about our lives just like old friends. We began with our journeys to Canada. I recounted mine of coming here from Pakistan as a child in the 1970’s while Grazia told me hers. A newly wed, she and her husband emigrated from Tuscany via ship to Montreal, Quebec in the early 1950’s shortly after World War II. As she relayed the difficulties Italian immigrants faced finding employment in Montreal then, I could empathize with her plight remembering how long my father pounded the pavement to find a job here in Ottawa. It took her some time to find one, but eventually through a family friend, she serendipitously found her life-long calling at the Ottawa Public Library; even in Italy, Grazia had worked in a library and was elated to find work in her field. After our exchanges, we both almost simultaneously exclaimed we felt like modern-day Canadian pioneers trying to carve out a decent life for ourselves in Canada! As I listened to Grazia’s tales of her life, one after the other, of children, grandchild and beloved work colleagues, I was impressed that not only did this woman have the gift of being able to beautifully convey the stories of others, she also easily and skillfully weaved those of her own experiences with such humour and heart-felt emotion. When I told her of my observation, she blushingly remarked that her children wanted her to record these tales for them… maybe even write a book about her life! I agreed and tried my best to convince her, even in some small way, this was worth doing… for the grandkids at least! She agreed to give this some serious consideration. To give Grazia a taste of how precious relaying personal histories can be, I directed her to an oral history site I frequent… whenever I hear these stories, it revives my passion for journaling… you can check out Story Corps for further inspiration.
You know, so many of us lead such incredible lives and we don’t even realize it! One day when we die, all those precious moments “will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” to quote a memorable character Roy Batty from a favourite sci-fi thriller: “Blade Runner”. Batty, a cyborg, who’d been given a 4-year life span by his maker, an old scientist, spends much of the movie tracking down the man in order to force him into prolonging his life. Long story short, he never realizes his goal… as Batty waits for his impending death in a fabulous scene on the rooftop of an immense building in the pouring rain, he reveals his love for life and recounts a few memorable experiences, both wondrous and minute … watching space ships on fire or seeing glittering c-beams in the night sky…. and even though Batty is one of the villains in the film, tears always well up in my eyes every time I hear that scene from the film because it bears witness to his humanity… deep inside, I know it’s one of the reasons I’m compelled to journal. When I’m old, I want to remember some of those precious moments of my life; I want my youngest sister to have a record of my life and I want to give proof of my existence in time. In the same spirit, in a video discussing how she felt about saving news items about her early musical days in an archive/scrapbook, Annie Lennox (of the Eurhythmics) sums things up beautifully when she describes her journal as a “a big breath” and “the essence of her life” she can share with others. Life is one moment after the next and the next and the next she says; keeping an archive is a way of stopping time as well as collecting it all in one place. I loved Lennox’s reflections on keeping a living record … to open an ordinary book and feel that you have something inside that comes alive in your hands and makes you feel like it’s a living, breathing entity is such a cool thing! For these reasons, I hope Grazia will decide to one day record her life’s adventures… or even at least one really good one – like the interviewees of Story Corps. And you, my dear readers? If you had to record just one moment about your life what would it be?
You May Also be Interested In:
“Pieces of Me II” Exhibition: Sharing Journal Pages & Blessings!
Why Not Keep a Visual Journal?
Video Clip of Roy Batty quote from Blade Runner
Leave a Reply