Monday 20 May 2013

Inspiration



I first saw this photo several years ago when doing some ancestry research on my husband’s family.  It is a photo of his grandmother and two of her sisters – the Salvesen sisters.  The photo is faded with age and unfortunately someone has cut off the fourth sister.  As far as my husband remembers it has always looked like this.  I found the photo intriguing and used it to write an opening chapter as part of my second Open University course a couple of years ago.  My aunt asked me the other day how my "Salvesen" story was going.  I had to admit it wasn’t, but having looked again at this photo, I’m going to revisit it with the hope of developing it further so watch this space!  Here is the opening paragraph:


The old woman struggles to sit up and, with a shaking hand, she reaches for the picture.  Her gnarled hand claws thin air and frustrated she tries again.  She pulls the solid silver frame towards her, the edge scraping along the surface of the bedside table, like fingernails down a blackboard.  Three sepia faces stared back at her.  The right-hand side of the picture is tattered where it has been cut and, along this jagged line, the wispy remains of a fourth person can just be seen, like a shadow or ghost.  The women are beautiful, but that was a long time ago.



6 comments:

  1. They are beautiful! What nationality is the name Salvesen? I'll be interested in reading what comes next.

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  2. Salvesen is a Norwegian name. Their father, Robert Salvesen,came to England when he was a young man and ended up owning a fleet of ships. I am fascinated by the women - there were four sisters, one, Agnes, traveled to Asia in 1913 on the Trans Siberian Express. We're lucky to have her diary from that trip. It was the discovery of the diary and the photo that made me want to write a "fictional" story about the sisters.

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  3. Go for it Anita, I always liked this idea!

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  4. Thanks Fran. Discussing it has made me interested in the story again. It's also given me an incentive to finish "The Gift" so I can then get on and write some more of this story.

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  5. I would love to know why the fourth sister is missing I'm sure you will come up with a good story.

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  6. Yes so would I - we're not even certain which sister it is that's missing. Nothing like a real life mystery to inspire a story.

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