Mementoir: 25 Letters for My Daughter to Read Later

By Mark Jeffreys

In the winter of 2018, when I was fifty-five, I began writing letters to my daughter and only child, who was seven. I was apart from her more often than I had been used to, that winter, so writing to her gave me a sense of additional connection. I wanted her to know something about the family members of her old father whom she would never be able to meet, and also to share a few memories about other people and events important to me. Initially, I posted these letters on a blog. I intended them to be readable in any order or as random samplings. I knew that she would not be of an age to read them for several years at least. I imagined the whole set as something more like a photo album than as pieces of typically fatherly advice. I was also aware that they were an exercise in narrated memory, a form of communication of which I am particularly wary, myself, not being a natural fan of memoirs. "Welcome to Memoryland," I wrote on the margins of the blog. "No, it's not your eyes. Things really are a bit blurry, but the locals are not as entirely untrustworthy as you may have heard. There's truth in this world, even facts if you know whom to ask. I grew up here myself. I'll be your guide. I'll try." Then I started writing the letters you see here. There are, without question, many facts in them, although some things remain blurred. I would like to think there is a bit of usable truth as well.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1726842843
• ISBN13: 9781726842846
• Release Date: October 2018
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 141 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.6" x 0.4" x 6.7"