The Book Journey That Started 50 Years Ago with a Lump of Coal
It’s getting close: In a matter of days I will publish my first book, Poverty to Possibility: Snapshots from a Yorkshire Boyhood. It’s the story of my dad’s childhood growing up in a poor Yorkshire, England coal-mining community during the depression-era 1930s and World War II. It’s a story about breaking through barriers, friendship, mentoring, and resilience.
The origins of my writing journey started 50 years ago in Rawmarsh, Yorkshire, England. It was 1970, and I had just turned nine. We were visiting my dad’s cousin, Ernest. A retired coal miner and now widowed, he lived alone in a small house in the village.
Fidgety and a bit bored by the grown-up conversation about times gone by and people I knew nothing about, I wandered outside to explore Ernest’s small, cobble-stoned back yard. I spotted a pile of coal there. Growing up in an oil-heated house in New England, I had never seen coal before. The black lumps were something exotic to behold. I enthusiastically scanned the pile, then plucked a small piece of coal from it like it was a prize at a county fair.
With renewed enthusiasm, I headed back inside to show everyone the coal lump. When I asked Ernest if I could keep it, his expression was one of clear astonishment. He had seen — and hewed — more than his fair share of it from the earth’s bowels: He had started work at 14 years old and had shoveled tons of coal in his lifetime. There was nothing exotic about coal to him. Nonetheless, he replied to me in a gentle, if weary way, “Aye, lass, you can take it.”
While the rest of that coal pile has long since been burned to heat Ernest’s house, the lump I plucked from it has somehow managed to stay close to me for five decades: From England to the United States, and through moves from Massachusetts to California to Florida, and points in between. That small lump of coal rests safely in my bedside table drawer.
As I grew up, my dad told many stories of growing up in Yorkshire. His stories mainly focused on being a choir boy and bell ringer at his parish church. He spoke of a best friend and mentor named Horace. He spoke about an inspiring teacher who helped him recognize his own talents as a writer. And he shared memories of a boyhood growing up in poverty and shaped by the terror and severe shortages of living through World War II.
My dad became a doctor — all but unheard of for a child growing up as he did. He loved storytelling and the written word. He authored a remarkable life for himself. Throughout my childhood, he encouraged me in my own writing.
I always hoped my dad would write a book about his childhood and the special people who helped shape his extraordinary life. But it never came to pass. He died too soon of cancer, in 2003.
As a way to honor my dad and cope with my grief after his harrowing illness and death — and fueled by my love of history — I decided to write a book about his childhood in Rawmarsh. It meant my returning there in 2004 for the first time since that 1970 trip when I was nine. I began a journey to unearth my dad’s childhood and my family’s history. I met many members of the extended family — some for the first time — and tracked down many of my dad’s childhood friends, most of whom were retired coal miners and steelworkers. They were beyond kind and supportive of what I was doing. They embraced me as one of them.
Writing my book has been a beautiful, energizing experience for me that has far exceeded my hopes and dreams. I’ve been up church towers and belfries; descended into the claustrophobia-inducing confines of a coal mine; scoured fragile documents in county archives; shared many memories over cups of tea; and been welcomed into the homes and lives of my dad’s extended family and childhood friends and their families.
I could not know when I picked up that lump of coal in 1970 at Ernest’s house that it would one day take on such powerful meaning for me. Today, half a century later, that impenetrably black, slightly glistening piece of Yorkshire coal represents the most amazing, illuminating journey of my life so far: Achieving my dream of writing my book and living my purpose of being a champion of opportunity for all.
Diane Bailey-Boulet | Author | Speaker |diane@scaleExcellence.com
©2020. Diane Bailey-Boulet. All rights reserved.
