Grandfather ...

Prompt 10 is a bit of Friday fun - instead of lengthy journaling, we're looking up words in the dictionary or the thesaurus!


Three ideas to try:

*Start with an existing layout and extend your writing on an additional page. Start by identifying a key word you used on the first page and adding its definition to the second page to link the two journaling sections.

*Start with one word to describe someone or something and write it in your notebook. Look it up in a thesaurus and write down all the other words that are suggested. Use them as a list or as a starter for descriptive writing about your subject.

*Start with a draft in your notebook and identify lazy word choices that could be improved. Look those up in a thesaurus and help boost your vocabulary and paint a more vivid picture of your memory.


My Grandfather was born in a small rural township in 1898; one of 8 children. He served in the 14th Light Horse Battalion during WW1, pitching his tent in sight of the Great Pyramid at Geiza and trudging his quarter horse through the hot desert sands. He farmed the land during the heartless depression, raising 3 daughters and a son. He loved to fish, often going for extended expeditions to remote inland waterways, camping in rough canvas tents and loving the land. In later life he was a well-known and well-liked barman at the local Returned Serviceman’s Club. He had a dry wit and a ready smile. A fascinating life – a Grandfather I wish I had known.

The Grandfather I knew was a frail old man, propped up with pillows, sitting in his worn leather chair, large oxygen tank by his side, clasping the clear mask in his thin hands. The Grandfather I knew couldn’t sit me on his lap; he didn’t have the breath to read me stories or the strength to play games in the yard. My Grandfather died of advanced emphysema in his hospital bed, canopied in plastic sheeting, gasping for every feeble, tortured breathe; he died before his time, the result of a lifetime of smoking his own cigarettes and breathing in the residual smoke of a thousand others. Smoking kills; my Grandfather would tell you that.