The New Zealand actor, Sam Neill, wrote his memoir “Did I Ever Tell You This” while steroids kept him awake at night. He was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare, aggressive type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He is currently in remission but with infusions every two weeks to keep it at bay. His memoir is not about cancer as that is something he wants to put at the back of his mind. Such an inspiration and role model!

It would be good if I could say I learnt a new skill or wrote the great novel during my self-enforced hibernation.

The piano lay untouched when I could have been practising.  The Swedish Death Cleaning which I so enthusiastically started, lapsed into apathy. My days followed a regular rhythm of meal prep, cleaning up and washing and drying clothes.  The rest of the time was spent reading or listening to audio books.  I attempted to complete Sudokus, enjoyed Wordle and Quordle and Octordle. Pilfer had me playing against the computer and winning (on level 1). Watching TV took place mainly in the evenings and occasionally at lunchtime, when I enjoyed Escaping to the Country and drooling over beautiful houses.  The summer drifted by, largely spent indoors with the air conditioning on.

Writing my daily journal was a ritual before bed each night, listing my side effects and comparing them with the previous cycle. Not exactly a memoir!

There was something I needed to complete before March as my granddaughter’s 16^th birthday was approaching.  It is a family tradition to pass on to the next generation a gold bracelet belonging to my grandmother.  She had been given the bracelet when she turned 16, in 1913.  She gave it to my mother when she turned 16.  In turn it was passed on to me at the same age.  When my daughter’s turn came she asked if I would look after it as she went travelling all over the world. It was still in my care as the time came again to pass it on to the next generation.

The owner of the bracelet, Myrtle May Lock

I came up with a plan to write a series of stories called “When I was 16”, showing how life has changed for teenagers over the past hundred years.  I was fortunate to have some lovely photographs of my grandmother around that age but only younger ones of my mother so that would have to do.  I looked back to my own life at 16 and asked my daughter to write about her life at that time as well.  There was such a contrast in the lives of the four women in the stories.  For my granddaughter the significance of the bracelet would be multiplied by the stories of its owners.

In the next post you will go back in time to 1913 and find out the origin of the gold bracelet.