Thank you for continuing to read my weekly blog posts. It’s
about time I wrote this, don’t you think? I’ve been working on this project for
some time. Writing a book takes a significant amount of time and brainpower.
I’m sure most folks realize that. Add to the mix a full-time+ day job,
volunteer work and a part-time job with a handful of other projects, not to
mention family, friends, exercise, eating, showering and sleeping—and, of
course, reading—and the capability to maintain such a massive project,
especially one with so much history, is quite an undertaking. So I thank you
for your continual reading of these posts, many of which, I am fairly sure will
be totally revised in the final novel.
I have dubbed Scandalous and Remarkable a
fictional biography, because there are so many details that I don’t know. Heck,
I’m not even sure how many times my great-grandmother was married! From my
grandparents’ generation I heard anywhere from seven to twelve times, and in
all my research (in three counties) and by trying extensive combinations of her
possible last names in search databases I’ve only found seven.
There was so much hearsay about the eighth husband, a man
called Curtis who lived in Curtice, Ohio, and to whom she was married only a
week that I feel bound to include him. The clues I had to work with—even after
wracking my brain in search engines and county courthouse records rooms—were
that they were married for a week, that Curtis was a chicken farmer with 12
children, that they lived in a shack with no electricity, no plumbing and an
outhouse. I am not even sure when exactly in her much-married life this
occurred. I don’t even know if Curtis was his first or last name. This man,
like a lot of poor people, seems to live under the radar of record-keeping. The
only timeline indication is that it was after her daughter-my grandmother and
grandfather were married (1936). However, Leta was married to Robert Fields one
year later (1937) and remained married to him until he died in 1946. In 1948,
she was married again. I have evidence of these marriages. My conjecture now is
that she married Curtis between 1946 and 1948. She would have been 52 years
old, and of a reasonable age to be stepmother to 12 children with the oldest
about 20. (Hm…now that I am writing, I think I will look for some of the
children, rather than the father or marriage. It is worth a shot.)
In any case, I have had to write a lot between the information
on this one.
Disregarding facts to get to truth is an age-old storytelling
style. For example, that’s where myths come from—people asking how did
such-and-such a person get from Point A to Point B, or why did this thing or
other happen? Even, how did we get here?
And let’s face it: no one knows every other little bitty thing
about another person’s life. Still, in this sort of project, there is always
some tension. It is sometimes very difficult or awkward for the sake of
storytelling to get in all of the details.
For example, it is fact that six months after her husband
Albert Mohr died, Leta married Ora Freeman. I don’t know how the twosome met or
dated, or even if they did. I know Leta’s children lived with them, at least
according to Vivian’s report cards, which were signed by “Leta Freeman” or “Ora
Freeman,” they did. I don’t know if Albert and Leta owned their home or rented.
In the story, I have Ora being neighborly and Leta becoming more financially
insecure. He was a neighbor – this is also a fact. I have their relationship
begin with him helping her out. Before she knows it, he’s proposing and she’s
agreeing. What I’ve not followed as fact is that sometime after Albert’s death
and before she and Ora apply for their marriage license, Leta and her children
moved. Instead of being ordered entirely by the facts, I am attempting to
follow the truth of how a recent grieving widow, mourning the abrupt death of
her husband, could marry another man so quickly. I have sacrificed, at least
for now, the fact that she moved.
The only other way I could conceive of this move and marriage
happening is that Leta knew Ora before the death of Albert. But would she have
moved closer to him purposefully? If she met him after she moved, how would
this affect the overall story of her life and person? After all, she was only
married to him for a year, and before she filed for divorce, he left her. How
important is it that she and the children move? Is it a distraction or a
necessity?
Yepper, these thoughts will continue, as will many others, as
I pursue truth over fact in the biography. But again, I am committed to going
for the truth. The factual details are guiding the writing, but if dictating
it, can become difficult stumbling blocks, not to mention being repetitious and
perhaps tedious. So I’ll go on the way I am. I have my timetable. I have my
historic information and records. I have the stories, others’ recollections and
my own memories. I’ll do what I can.
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