Who would you want to read your memoir?

If you’ve followed our blog for a while, you know who Wanda Bridgeforth is: She’s witty, she’s talented, she’s 93 years old and she’s been attending the memoir-writing class I lead in downtown Chicago for a decade now.

When Wanda was growing up on the South Side of Chicago, her mother worked “in private family,” which meant mama lived at the houses she took care of. Wanda lived with one relative one week, a friend the next, and sometimes, with complete strangers.

Your positive response to last Thursday’s post motivated me to share another essay from a writer in one of the memoir classes I lead, and this time, we’ll hear from Wanda.

Wanda at her 90th birthday party with her fellow writers in our Renaissance Court class.

My classes are taking a short break after Labor Day, and for their final assignment I asked writers in Wanda’s class to imagine they could have a guarantee that one specific person would read their memoir. “Who would you want that person to be?” I asked.  “Why? What do you want to say to them?”

Wanda was born on October 20, 1921, and she’d like a guarantee that her descendant born closest to October 20, 2021 will read her memoir.

”I pass my memoir essays to you,” she says in the opening of her essay, urging her unknown reader to read her essays carefully and discover the many conveniences that were unknown in her own day. “You will see how we LIVED without them, and hopefully you will realize the contributions we made to ease your life.”

A savvy young 74-year old writer in Wanda’s memoir-writing class has started a blog called Beth’s Class where she publishes essays she and fellow writers from that class have written. You can link to the Beth’s Class blog to read Wanda’s entire essay, and in the meantime I’ll leave you here with her powerful — and beautifully written — conclusion:

I have tried to present some of the struggles we had, the indignities we endured to make the world a better place. The Civil Rights Movement. The right to vote for all. Equal education. Lifting of covenants to ensure the right to equal housing.

You will see the many advances we achieved. There is still much to be done and I hope you will be inspired to pick up the torch and work for more equality and greater opportunities for the generations that will follow you.

I challenge you to find humor in life, meet it head on, not take yourself too seriously, love your fellowman whether he loves you or not.

LIVE and LOVE LIFE to the FULLEST,

Above All:

BE AT PEACE WITH YOURSELF!!!