It was only after I started The Her Diary Project that I learned of these diaries’ existence. I was talking to my mother on the phone about it, and she mentioned that she had kept some appointment books and notebooks that belonged to her mother, Dolores. In these books, Dolores made notes, recorded phone numbers, and wrote about her daily life. She died when I was 14, but had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for many years before that. In fact, the last of these books documents the beginning of her heartbreaking illness. I don’t remember her well, so I am grateful to read about her daily life and her thoughts, and to see my name written in her handwriting. Just like in other diaries, including those of Abby Condon and Bessie Dunklee, the child in this Diary Writer’s life scribbled in these diaries too, except in this case that child was me. I am honored to safeguard her diaries and to add them to this collection of women’s diaries that I am collecting.

When I started this Project, I made a rule that I would never write about people that are living to protect their privacy and memories. In these diaries, Dolores not only writes about me, but about other members of my family that are living as well. Because of this, I won’t be sharing more of her diaries here, at least until I am the only one in them that lives. Until then, they will sit on the shelf next to Dolores’ photo, my deceased father’s photo, watches, and letter that he wrote to me on my 18th birthday, and the other diaries in this collection of women’s stories through time.