Listeners help solve the mystery of a 100-year-old diary
When Now or Never was in Vancouver last week, we launched the latest version of the Now or Never list — which, if you haven't already filled out, you really should.
One of the people we met was a woman named Norah Ashmore. When we asked her question number nine from the list — "What's the personal mystery you want to solve?" — she told us about her grandmother's diary.
The diary dates back over a century, to when Norah's grandmother was 19. Most of the diary is written in cursive but there are some entries in Pitman shorthand.
"I'd ask her: 'What do these things mean?' said Ashmore. "Because you're obviously expressing something in your diary that you don't want anybody else to know."
So to help solve this mystery, we posted a page from her grandmother's diary. In no time, our listeners and readers jumped into action and started to decipher the page in question.
Lois Trudeau Pennell of Vancouver tried to figure it out. At first glance she said:
"It starts with the person saying that someone said they were getting senile, then seemed to go on about someone asking for an inheritance, and ended up saying they were going to do it on Sunday."
Diane Simons from Sicamous, B.C., wrote in with a completely different take:
"I think Grandmother wrote... She loved her children and all the different people from around the world who lived in Bralorne [B.C.] but hated the long dark snowy winters in the mountains. She longed to go home to visit her family in Ireland but that was impossible now since he was diagnosed with... If only he would take the treatment..."
Finally, Cheryl Stamper of Huntsville, Ontario offered this transcription. The blanks indicate words she couldn't figure out.
"___ caught my train ___. Some ___ told me at lunchtime that I was getting a ___ little package and it would have to ___ me before I went away. ___ came to the station with me and asked if I would give him my photo before I went away. ___ came to me in the train with ___ and gave me his card and asked me to write to him."
This last version resonated with Ashmore who said she has always been interested in her family's history and travels.
"If I were able to talk to Cheryl I'm sure I would learn more about their immigration story," said Ashmore.
At the back of the diary there is a little pocket containing two things — one a small photo and one a calling card. The card was from the man who eventually became Ashmore's grandfather.
"She came when she was 19 and she didn't get married until she was 20-something so she had time to meet different people and date different people in Vancouver," said Ashmore.
And though the mystery isn't yet completely solved, Ashmore is glad to have learned a little more about her grandmother's life.
"Of course this is fascinating for me, and I see the value in keeping tangible records of a life. I am so grateful for the nudge that Ify and Trevor gave me that day."