Personal Narrative

A multi-genre (a combination of several artistic forms, i.e. photos, drawings, compositions) story and personal essay about the author's life experience.

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Gnarled Branches,
Hearty Roots

Excerpts from the story and personal essay:

On the Farm

IT'S NOT CLEAR just when this story began. Many years have slipped by since Alice Margaret Zimmerman was a twiggy country girl who pleasured in the warm sunshine of summer and cuddled up in toasty blankets through chilly winter nights on the farm—the family farm of her youth. This is a story without a clear beginning, but maybe, just maybe it had already begun when Alice was a growing child.

That's when you might find Alice hidden under the elderly weeping willow tree near her mother's gladiola bed and the bountiful vegetable garden. The willow, whose long, slender branches touched nearly to the tips of the green grassy blades below it, was a special place to play and hide. The elderly willow stood just beyond the roomy farmhouse, once home to Alice 's grandparents—now home to her parents and her four siblings.

The old willow tree was a perfect haven because its branches hung full and thick round its trunk. Alice would often play beneath the seemingly enchanted tree with her little sister, Rebecca (Becky). They delighted in pretending for countless hours that they were the girl in Wonderland and the girl from Sunnybrook farm.

But secretly from time to time, Alice retreated alone to the elderly willow to weep—to cry and hide when the aching in her lanky legs scared her. And one sunny summer afternoon her mother found her beneath the weeping willow with a stream of tears tumbling down her cheeks…

© Alice Oden, 2006

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