So much for the anticipated finish line being achieved at the end of last November. Or even December. The year has ticked over in 2025 and this account is still not complete. I plead mitigating circumstances, and the unexpected but definitely serendipitous, conversation with Garry at a memorial service we both attended late last year. It resulted in his being able to answer a couple of questions involving dates and timelines thanks to Garry archiving all the emails he both received and sent during the campaign years and the folders still there on his computer.
Once upon a time I had a similar archive but when the NBN was finally rolled out in this area I was obliged to change my email address and 12+ years’ worth of emails disappeared into the ether. Theoretically they are backed up on my hard drive but when I tried to access one backup I couldn’t. A techo whizz might be able to do so – for a price – but I fear that my record of electronic historical correspondence is gone forever.
Thank goodness for printed paper, newspaper cuttings, diaries and various other pieces of memorabilia.
Garry though, being the dedicated library technician he is bless him, went home that afternoon and delved into his own extensive computer files and forwarded what was in truth a small book of emails covering the time I needed to verify. Talk about illuminating. Amazing how memory remembers certain aspects and totally airbrushes others out out of the frame.
Being able to reinforce my memory of the event I was struggling to recall accurately was brilliant. Less brilliant was then being obliged to re-write three chapters of the book as a result of this information! Ultimately though, a good thing as it’s definitely strengthened the work, but having to backtrack did feel a bit like sliding down the snake rather than climbing up the ladder since, being me, I couldn’t continue until that was done to my satisfaction. Other writers may have been able to set that new information aside and add it later do it later, but I couldn't. Never mind. It’s done now and is better for the re-write. But back in the groove now and picking up where I left off in Chapter 32.
That means just three, possibly four, chapters to go.
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