The current pandemic has been filled with loss and panic, and we have all struggled. But humans are resourceful. We have learned to manage many things from home we never thought we’d have to. One of those things is the Zoom meeting.

From In Front Of to a FaceTime

I was introduced to this form of virtual get-together by one of my writers’ groups. We used to convene once a month in the meeting room at a pizza parlor. Now we get together every other week in our own homes via Zoom. It has been a way to continue our critique capabilities and to see on a computer screen those friendly faces we used to see once a month.

I belong to three writers’ groups, and all of them have continued with some consistency through Zoom. A group of my retreat mates from Highlights Foundation workshops also has occasional Zoom gatherings.

I even met with the editor of my novels virtually to get her take on the current project I am working on.

I’ve also had Zoom chats with family members.

While this may sound well and good, there have been occasional glitches.

“Sorry… We’re getting some feedback…”

One of our writers’ meetings during the hectic holiday season found all of us told we were “unauthorized” to join the meeting. I ended up having to open a new Zoom account that night before I was allowed admittance—a full hour late.

For my first few Zoom assemblies, I joined with my Kindle. The only down side was my inability to see more than four participants at a time. I had to toggle back and forth to make others visible.

Once I had set up Zoom on my laptop, I was able to have the “gallery view,” that Brady Bunch/Hollywood Squares image of the entire assemblage. But as meetings continued, other down sides occurred.

In several meetings, participants complained of a terrible “vacuum-cleaner type noise.” They tried to figure out who might be running a dishwasher or a blender. No one was. Me? I didn’t even hear the noise described.

After this complaint popped up in three different meetings with three different groups, I came to the conclusion I must be the culprit. Could it be the fan on my laptop? I did an experiment with my “Noodlers” group. When they reported the noise, I switched to my Kindle. Noise gone. Problem solved, but I lost my gallery view.

My son suggested the noise might be from vibration of my fan rather than the fan itself. My next experiment was the use of a quilted placemat under my laptop during meetings. Problem solved. Back to gallery view.

“Did you dye your hair?”

Another quirky occurrence when using the laptop was a purple hue in my video—including my hair. Others in the meetings were convinced I had died my brown hair purple. And apparently, all my clothes were purple as well. It became cause for some good-natured teasing, and low-tech person that I am, I knew no way to fix it.

During a particular 1PM meeting, I realized at one point, my hair was brown again. My black sweater was black. All the participants agreed, colors were back to normal I thought my problem had somehow resolved itself—until I needed to look at my notes.

I turned on the overhead light—and the purple was back. Earlier that meeting, I had been using the bright sunlight outside my window for light. So, now I know the change of hue is somehow caused by a combination of my laptop video and my artificial lighting. I don’t know how to change that. Since I can’t use sunlight on cloudy days or for evening meetings, I will continue to sport purple hair.

We’re in a pandemic. The semblance of purple hair is not a cause for concern. I can deal with the teasing.

And I Zoom on!

The year 2020 has been difficult for all of us, but some more than others. Many of us lost loved ones, and we miss them terribly. We grieve, and try to move on in this changed world filled with COVID protocols. Life is certainly more difficult this year.

A Reason of Joy

Now, we are in the time of year often called the “Season of Joy.”  How do we find joy in a year that had brought so much hardship and discomfort? Maybe we just need to look a little deeper.

If we have a roof over our heads, we have reason for joy.

If we have food to eat, we have reason for joy.

If we have clothes to keep us warm and shoes on our feet, we have reason for joy.

If we have enough money to pay the bills this month, we have reason for joy.

If we have a bed to sleep in at night, we have reason for joy.

If we have people to love (no matter how far away they are), we have reason for joy.

If we have people who love us, we have reason for joy.

If we have the ability to walk and talk and…well, you get where I’m going with this, right?

But what about those people we lost? That’s tougher, heart-wrenchingly tough, but we can try to find joy in memories of them, and we can thank God we had them for the time we did. Sometimes joy comes mixed with tears.

Share Joy This Season

Once we find our joy, what next? That’s easy. Spread it around! Remember those who don’t have as many reasons to be joyful as we do. Give to a foodbank or a homeless shelter. Buy a toy for a needy child. Bake cookies for someone in a nursing home. Help with someone’s rent. Show appreciation for our healthcare workers and everyone who fights the war against the pandemic. Send a card or note to someone who is alone. Share the joy!

You know what happens when you share joy, don’t you? You get even more of it yourself. It feels good to be helpful, and that makes us joyful. We have the ability to make joy more contagious than the virus, so let’s do it!

I hope 2021 will be a better year for all of us, and I wish everyone a joyful holiday season!

As a child, I remember being confused by Santa Claus being part of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Santa was for Christmas, not Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was supposed to be about turkey and pilgrims and giving thanks. I guess I was too young to understand. 

But the holidays run together, it seems. Christmas items turn up in the stores in mid-October, before Halloween makes its appearance.

Christmas music blasts from the radio as soon as Halloween ends. November blurs into pre-holiday mania.

I enjoy Halloween in October and Thanksgiving in late November. I’m not ready for Christmas carols until December first. But that’s just me. Everything in its proper season.

Not Turkey, Trees, or Ghouls

I celebrate that other November holiday as well, the one many people forget amid all the holiday prep; November 11, Veterans Day. I fly my flag, put a red, white, and blue wreath on my door, and take my three favorite veterans out to dinner (or perhaps in this year of COVID, we will carry out dinner). Maybe the importance of that holiday for me stems from being in a family of veterans.

A Family of Veterans

My father and his brothers served in the Armed Forces. His brother-in-law was a frogman at Pearl Harbor after the attack. I learned at a young age to appreciate their sacrifice.

My husband served in the US Navy, and he wore his uniform at our wedding. Spending the early years of our marriage with him away wasn’t easy on either of us, but his service made me proud.

Both of my sons served their country too, one in the Navy like his Dad, the other in the US Marine Corps. I felt red, white, and blue with pride.

I also had cousins who served. And a nephew. One niece married a Marine. And one niece now has a daughter in the US Army. 

Celebrating Sacrifice

These people signed up to devote years of their lives to their country. The pay stinks, and the rewards are few. Yet, they put their lives on the line day after day after day. For country. For us.

Taking one day in the year to acknowledge their sacrifice does not seem too much to ask. Won’t you join me in celebrating Veterans Day? How? Fly the American Flag. Thank a veteran for his service. Donate to a Veterans’ organization.

Don’t forget the Vet!

A friend of mine is currently involved with trying to preserve the façade of a 145-year-old school house. I admire those who work to save pieces from the past, to restore a slice of history. The children who attended school in that building 145 years ago have grown and gone. Many of them have descendants who, we can hope, have kept memories of them. Now one more item from the past will help to keep those students alive.

My brother is part of a group who transports a piece of more recent history to locations to share with the public. A 12-foot-long section of a girder from the World Trade Center, destroyed 19 years ago last month (along with about 3,000 lives), travels on a trailer. When it’s on display, people are able to see—and even touch—the girder mangled in the 9/11 attack. It’s a way to remember and pay tribute.

History Keeps Memory Alive

On a personal level, we often pass things down from generation to generation to preserve family history. My family has a baptismal gown which was made by my grandmother 104 years ago when she was expecting her firstborn—my father. Dad’s 8 siblings were baptized in the same dress, as was I, my siblings, and most of my first cousins. My children and nieces and nephews wore the gown when their turns came. And then their children. That dress Grandma made has now been worn by 122 family members. Whenever I touch it, I think of my Dad and his mother, and my entire family. In a sense, my Grandma lives on with each baptism.

Many of us also visit museums and historical sites to pay tribute to the past, to remember what happened before. Some are amazing. Some are moving. Some are terrifying.

Stories that Make History Come Alive

I have always liked visiting old mansions and museums, even cemeteries. When I write historical fiction, it becomes part of my job. When I did research for Like a River, I spent several hours in the cemetery at Andersonville Prison. The graves made me think about the thousands of men who had died in that horrible place. It made me determined to write a book that would make people realize what happened there and do justice to those lives cut short.

I am now working on a new book, which I hope will remind people of another tragic event, and teach young people about how things from the past helped change and mold the present and the future. By keeping the past alive, we can acknowledge those who came before. We can touch a girder, a dress, a tombstone, or a piece from an old school house to remind us of the past.

The past can live on in all of us!

Covid-19 has changed all our lives. Back in March, when businesses closed and people tried to stay at home, it was tough to wrap our minds around what was happening.

The novel I was working on fell by the wayside. How could I concentrate on writing about a tragic event in history when a more tragic one was happening in the present? One I—and everyone I knew—was part of?

Documenting Future History

As a writer of historical fiction, I am always on the alert for documents like diaries and letters that were written during the time periods I write about. I thought about the importance for writers in the future to find primary sources from our Covid journey.

I started taking notes about what people on the news said, what those around me did, and how it made me feel. My notes took on a rhythm and morphed into a poem.

A similar thing happened to me on September 11th, 2001. Two weeks after the buildings fell, I wrote a poem about that day and the events that followed. Writing that poem opened the flood gates that allowed me to focus on my work again. It is published in the collection ANYTHING PROSE AND POETRY TOO.

But Covid didn’t end. It still hasn’t. I found myself writing verse after verse for over six weeks, when a beloved cousin passed away after his battle with Covid. Tim died on May 3. On the 4^th, I wrote the last line of my poem. I call it NUMBERS.

Numbers

A Still Lingering Monster

When I finished my poem, the next thing I wrote was my cousin’s eulogy. I was honored to be asked, and I will miss him always. I had to watch his funeral online. Not the kind of Goodbye we wanted. I couldn’t hug his wife and children.

That was three months ago, and we are still struggling with the Covid monster.

I am back to writing my novel again, but life is very different. I am extra thankful for every day I am given. I know I take fewer things for granted now.

Stay safe, Everyone! Be patient. Be kind. Take care of one another.

If you read Dear Departed, thank you. I hope you enjoyed reading it. I most certainly enjoyed researching and writing it.

At the end of each of my published novels, I write an Author’s Note to tell the factual history behind the fictional story. Dear Departed is fiction, and now I’ll give you the facts.

If you have not read Dear Departed, there may be spoilers below. Dear Departed will remain on my site, for free, until July 15th.

Behind the Novel

Ginnie Lee Kent, her family, and the people she meets in Gettysburg are fiction, but the historical elements in the story are true.

Grandpa’s tales about Stonewall Jackson and the Stonewall Brigade are part of history, as is Robert E. Lee and his connection to George Washington’s family. The details about Maine’s Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Mr. Redmond’s commander), who planned to attend the reunion, but whose doctors kept him home due to illness, are fact.

Rebecca’s Branch, Skitter Falls, and Rockbridge are fiction, but they are based on a mixture of places in the hills of West Virginia. All other places mentioned in the story (Gettysburg, Morgantown, Marietta, Lexington) are real places. I visited all of them, and was fascinated by their rich history.

Researching the Facts

I spoke with an archivist at today’s Marietta College (in Marietta, Ohio) about Ginnie Lee’s chances of attending that institution in 1917. She gave me a copy of the 1917-1918 Student Handbook, which told me, not only that Ginnie Lee could have taken an exam for acceptance, but what subjects she would have to know and on what date the test would be given. It also gave the date her classes would have started.

Haints is a word used frequently in Appalachian areas, and means “ghosts” or “haunts.” Grandpa’s haints are what would now be called PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

The battle in Gettysburg was quite real. It took place in July, 1863, and was the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War with 51,000 casualties in three days of fighting.

Real women like the fictional Mrs. Grome hid Union soldiers in their homes when the Confederate Army occupied the town on July first and second. They also tended wounded from both armies as the town overflowed with more injured soldiers than army surgeons could care for.

This battle is often called “the high tide of the Confederacy,” because when it ended, the Confederates retreated and never again occupied Northern territory or held the same victorious position they had held in the early half of the war.

The Real Reunion

Five years before the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, as more and more Civil War veterans reached the end of their lives, General H.S. Huidekoper of Philadelphia got the idea for a reunion. Huidekoper, who lost his right arm in the first day’s battle at Gettysburg, took his idea to Pennsylvania Governor Edwin S. Stuart. Plans took shape for the state of Pennsylvania to host a reunion for Civil War veterans, a chance to reunite the last survivors of the war that changed a nation.

Plans for this reunion were extensive. The War Department leased the land where the Camp was to be set up. Different Departments of the Army cooperated to build the Camp and carry out its needs. The Army Quartermaster Corps dug wells and laid water lines, constructed “comfort stations” (restrooms), and built 173 kitchens with 425 field ranges to cook and bake for the veterans. The Medical Department of the Army, with assistance from the Red Cross, set up and staffed hospital tents and aid stations. The Pennsylvania Health Department analyzed water purity, and oversaw changes to assure public safety. The county even built a new water purification plant to prepare for the reunion.

An ice house was built, as well as places to dispose of both liquid and solid kitchen waste and burn other trash. A temporary Post Office was built. Thirty-two cooled-water drinking fountains were installed at various places around the Camp.

A Long Journey

Veterans came from all over the country at a time when airplanes were in their infancy, and even automobile travel was primitive. It took up to six days by train for these men to reach their destination, and again to return home. Most, but not all, of the states appropriated money for their veterans’ travel expenses. (West Virginia did.) Some railroads gave discounts.

Because seventy-two was the average age of the veterans, twelve mule-drawn ambulances and two automobile ambulances were on site. The Telephone Company ran lines to connect the Camp with outside hospitals. During the reunion, 741 ambulance calls were responded to and 1,100 patients were transported.

A temporary morgue was also made ready. Nine attendees (eight Union and one Confederate) died during the reunion, which was considered a small number because of the age of the men and the hot weather. The heat and storms were as I described.

A Large Camp and Over 50,000 People

The Camp, consisting of the Great Tent and smaller tents to house the veterans, covered 280 acres. It had over 47 miles of roads, 835 feet of board sidewalks, and was lit by 500 electric lights. It was designed to hold 40,000 veterans, but in the end, 53,407 attended. The last-minute shipment of supplies Ginnie Lee and Chance witnessed was made to accommodate this increase.

The Camp also housed 124 Army officers and 1,342 enlisted men to police and protect the area, 155 newspaper reporters from the United States and abroad, and 2,170 cooks, bakers, kitchen helpers, and laborers.

This total of 57,198 people quartered in the Camp required 6,592 tents, filed with cots, mattresses, blankets, lanterns, and wash basins. Each veteran was issued a mess kit for his use and to keep as a souvenir.

A total of 385 Boy Scouts from a 150-mile radius were recruited to assist the veterans.

Tourism Boom

Gettysburg also saw an influx of guests outside the Camp. Families traveled along with many of the veterans, just as Ginnie Lee traveled with Grandpa. They stayed in houses and hotels around Gettysburg. In preparation for them, several public comfort stations were built in town.

And the food! From supper on Sunday, June 29 to breakfast on Sunday, July 6, there were 688,000 meals served. Groceries included 171,132 pounds of meat and fowl, 216,777 pounds of fresh vegetables, as well as canned and dried vegetables, and nearly 25,000 eggs. Even 9,300 pounds of salt and 59, 976 pounds of sugar were used.

Remembering & Learning from the Past

What happened at the reunion? Mostly visiting and remembering. Veterans who had fought at Gettysburg went to places they had been during the battle, and talked about what they remembered. They reminisced with old Army friends they hadn’t seen in nearly half a century. They visited the Soldiers’ Cemetery, where their fellow soldiers had been laid to rest.

Curtains inside the Great Tent divided it into separate rooms where different small groups could gather. They were taken down for large assemblies, where a variety of speakers addressed the veterans. U.S. Secretary of War, Lindley M. Garrison, and Pennsylvania Governor John K. Tener both spoke. Even President Woodrow Wilson addressed the veterans on July Fourth.

Special guests were brought in, like James Longstreet Welchel and George Edward Pickett, both descendants of famous Confederate generals. Many speakers gave a special welcome to Confederate veterans, reminding everyone that all veterans were Americans who served valiantly and deserved to be treated as brother soldiers, even though fifty years earlier they had been enemies.

Most of the reporters who covered the reunion mentioned how these men, who had met in this place in battle in 1863, came together in 1913 without grudges, enmity, or anger over the past. The Civil War divided our nation, but eventually, we united again in peace and became a stronger union because of what these men had done. That is what they wanted to remember.