“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the
minds of others and the stories they share about you.” Shannon Alder.
Tabitha Moffat Brown was a grandmother when she headed west to Oregon Territory
in 1846. Her story and that of her daughter and granddaughter is a part of the
novel I wrote called THIS
ROAD WE TRAVELED (Revell). On that journey, Tabby (as I called her) decided
to write her memoir telling stories of her greatest challenges, a legacy gift
she planned to leave her children.
I used that fictional device as a way of sharing Tabby's history as the family
dealt with trials during a fateful trek on the Oregon Trail. I've long thought
that stories are the sparks that light our ancestor’s lives; they're the embers
we blow on to illuminate our own lives. Tabby did actually write letters about
her life that became the basis for my novel. I had her use the occasion of a
life-changing journey to share some of her stories. But I think any time of the
year is a good time to write down memories and experiences, not in any great
order, but as they come to us. They can be sparks for our own families to
illuminate their lives.
The Christmas when my older sister got her first horse, a red and white paint
named Bonnie comes to mind for me. I was only eight years old at the time but I
remember the intrigue of my parent’s efforts to surprise my sister who at twelve
had always longed to have a horse. My sister died 19 years ago, but I still see
her with her cowboy hat perched on her black hair riding in the Wisconsin snow
on that chubby red and white horse. She will always be alive to me in that
image, a gift I give myself. Maybe it's a birthday story that you remember and
want to share. You don't have to have a great insight about the meaning of the
story, only that it's something you remember and would love someone else in your
life to have it in their memory too.
Someone once wrote that the purpose of a novel is to move people. Sometimes that
means moving their hearts and sometimes it means moving them off their couch to
go visit a place mentioned in a novel; or to call a friend because something in
the story spoke to friendship. Maybe the story moves a reader to write a letter
or perhaps like Tabby, to write a story down. Nothing pleases me more as a
novelist as when someone tells me how a story moved them to do something they'd
been putting off like beginning their own memoir.
At a bookfair last week, a woman said she didn't usually "waste her time" on
novels but she read mine because they were based on real people and incidents. I
didn't disagree with her -- the reader is always right! -- but I did wish for a
longer time to explore with her how fiction always grows from "real life," from
our imaginations, from all those stories we were told as children and from the
incidents we live out day to day and later weave through memory into story.
There is truth to be found in fiction just as there is in biography and
non-fiction works of all kinds. William Faulkner noted when he accepted the
Pulitzer Prize in 1954, that "the only stories worth a writer’s blood and sweat
and tears are stories of the human heart in conflict with itself." We all have
stories like that inside of us and telling them -- even short ones like parables
-- can bring joy and wisdom to others and ourselves.
All of us are story-tellers because stories are the most powerful ways we have
of organizing human experience. Tabby organized her stories around her life's
challenges but you can organize your stories --whether you're a writer like
Faulkner or a gramma or a dad or a student -- around any stories that you've
kept in the pocket of your soul.
Give your stories as a gift to others and in the meantime you may well discover
as Tabby did in THIS ROAD WE
TRAVELED things about yourself you otherwise might never have known. Write
your legacy this season on "hearts not tombstones." It might inspire fresh
fiction in your life or that of someone you love.
Jane Kirkpatrick is the New York Times and CBA bestselling author of more
than twenty-nine books, including A Light in the Wilderness and A Sweetness to
the Soul, which won the coveted Wrangler Award from the Western Heritage Center.
THE MEMORY WEAVER earned the Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award for best western
inspirational novel, 2016. Her works have been finalists for the Christy Award,
Spur Award, Oregon Book Award, and Reader’s Choice awards, and have won the
WILLA Literary Award and Carol Award for Historical Fiction. Jane lives in
Central Oregon.
Drama, Adventure, and Family Struggles Abound as Three Generations Head
West on the Oregon Trail
When Tabitha Brown's son makes the fateful decision to leave Missouri and
strike out for Oregon, she refuses to be left behind. Despite her son's
concerns, Tabitha hires her own wagon to join the party. Along with her
reluctant daughter and her ever-hopeful granddaughter, the intrepid Tabitha has
her misgivings. But family ties are stronger than fear.
The trials they face along the way will severely test Tabitha's faith,
courage, and ability to hope. With her family's survival on the line, she must
make the ultimate sacrifice, plunging deeper into the wilderness to seek aid.
What she couldn't know was how this frightening journey would impact how she
understood her own life--and the greater part she had to play in history.
With her signature attention to detail and epic style, New York Times
bestselling author Jane Kirkpatrick invites readers to travel the deadly and
enticing Oregon Trail. Based on actual events, This Road We Traveled will
inspire the pioneer in all of us.
Inspirational
Historical [Revell, On Sale: September 6, 2016,
Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780800722333 / eISBN: 9781493405138]
An
inspirational story of strength and determination
I have made myself wait to read this book because I know a surgery will have me down for a month so I want some books that I am guaranteed to love. I have read every book Jane has written. A Name of Her Own was the first book I found. It got me through the painful last trip to be with my mom at the end of her life. My mother was a strong woman who overcame hardship and was a woman who empowered people. All of Jane's books introduce us to strong women who overcome the hardships in their life and who have helped to make this world. Most of the stories show that a woman can survive anything. It is funny that Jane wrote about journaling.because a few days before Christmas, I asked my husband to get me a journal so that I can write about the women who have inspired me in life; my mother and grandmother and also be able to have my thoughts written down for my future self and for those who someday may read my words and learn about their Auntie. I can tell you that any book that Jane writes will place you in the world these women are in and you will never be the same.
(Vivian Elliott 2:04am December 29, 2016)
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