My Mothers’ Autograph Book – By Linda Wakefield

In the past, an autograph book was a young girls most precious possession. It was a keepsake to fill with the words of friendship poetry, statements of love and encouragement for the future. We all know that times have changed even autograph books. They have become simply as their name implies—an autograph book. Merely, a purchased book not a treasured gifted keepsake. An autograph book has become a book that children,  such as my granddaughter, carry with them in Disney World. However, that little book was an excuse to run up and talk to any and all Disney characters and ask for an autograph; Mickey and Minnie Mouse were first to sign. It is wrong of me to judge her autograph book as untreasured; to her I’m sure it is.

When a child, I remember receiving an autograph book and getting my friends to sign it at Moore Park School. I don’t have it today. Sadly, I suppose I did not “value it—to keepsake it”.  However, my mother Irene Sarah Alice (Curle) Stephens cherished hers to which I am the guardian.

On August 29, 1932 my Grandma Annie wrote:

In 1952, at age 12 my sister Joyce Elizabeth (Stephens) Castle wrote in our Mother Irene’s  autograph book the following :

My Moms autograph book is eighty-five years old on this Mother’s Day, 2017.  It is grey and worn but the words within are ones of love and caring. In 1932,  my mother Irene received this book as a seventeen year old teenager. On May 25, 1938 she married my father, Frank James Stephens, and one of the last entries made was by her daughter in 1952.

My Mother, Irene, had the love of family always in her heart and in her mind.

“Mom, I miss you”.