The story I want to tell is how love prevails in spite of obstacles issues as it did in our family. The story I want to tell is how I asked the question, how do I explain this to my kids? many times while raising them as a single mom and how I literally had to start life over again at the age of 29 as a single mom with three kids, ages 5, 3 ad 2…and reinvent myself to pull ourselves out of poverty even after I got pregnant and had a fourth kid and the boyfriend left me alone to raise all the kids. again. The story I want to tell is about how growing up in San Francisco in the ’60s taught me many survival lessons and reminded me that though my mom did not always see eye to eye, she was there for me when I really needed her, and she really was a badass warrior queen and always will be in my mind.
The story I want to tell reveals unconditional love and a close-knit family who survived, and in the end, I survived as well. And how music and writing my stories along with my family helped me to become the person I am today at the age of 64 with four grown children and three grandkids.
I have been attempting to figure out the one MAIN THEME for my memoir for literally years now. It will take place in two different time periods, the present (well, it starts in the 80s) and then memories of the 60s and early 70s.
The story I want to tell is how I learned as much if not more from my kids than they learned from me.
There are so many stories I want to tell, but how does one narrow it down to just ONE major theme? Does there have to be just one major theme?
The story I want to tell haunts me, and no matter what other projects I’m working on, the question always is, how do I explain this to my kids? To myself? to anyone who will listen?
Maybe I’ll strum my ukulele or go for a walk and think about this some more. Sigh.
The story I want to tell is about a young woman (me) at age 29 who becomes a single mom with three young kids (then ages 5, 3 and 2), and must raise them herself without assistance from their dad who never does return into the picture in any way. It’s about her struggles and how she literally had to start from scratch in a tiny apartment with no phone and no car. She and the kids walk everywhere, including to the store to buy groceries and to the laundromat, not easy with three little kids. She even has to go on the dreaded Welfare for a while because she can’t get a job right away. The whole world went computer without her when she lived in West Germany for over three years with her husband whom she fled from with three kids, $200, and seven suitcases.
The story I want to tell is about survival and how sometimes the past does give courage, resilience, and strength to the stressed-out single mom and influences her life and the lives of her kids as well.
Maybe I truly don’t even know which story I want to tell? Maybe I’ve written all those pages for nothing. 🙁