It has been Notes Week in my imaginary Towel World, but in the real world, this week is known as Wakes Week, at least in the Derbyshire Dales of England.
Since medieval times they have celebrated by blessing the wells and springs of the area with ornate decorations made of fresh flowers, and also with parades, re-enactments, carnivals, and the like. As I researched the area for my Saying Goodbye series, I was fascinated by the longstanding tradition. The week coincides with the remembrance of the people of Eyam, who, in 1665 and 1666 made a great sacrifice by voluntarily quarantining themselves to their homes and their town in order to save the neighboring towns from the Black Plague.
Even now, 353 years later, their sacrifice is remembered. People pay respects at the graves. They visit the Boundary Stones, which marked the safe distance where the afflicted could leave their money (soaking in vinegar to sanitize it) for the neighboring townsfolk who would leave food and provisions, in exchange.
To culminate Wakes Week, Sunday Services were re-enacted in Cucklet Delph, where the people of Eyam met out-of-doors for church, in hopes of worshiping without spreading the disease.
As I studied these events, and spun my story for my own characters, my imagination pulled me back, 350 years back, into the thoughts of a young girl from one of those outlying villages, and the boy she loved, who lived in Eyam. They wrote notes to one another, leaving them on their own Boundary Stone, and the young girl writes it all down in her journal. Imagination is an amazing tool. A blessing. The ability to put oneself in another's position is a gift. A great gift. And jotting one's feelings in a journal is a great gift for one's eventual posterity.
Hopefully none of us will ever encounter the Black Plague in our time, but so much else is going on in our lives--so much that our posterity may want to know. May need to know. We should be taking note. We should be leaving a record. If for no other reason than to spark the imagination of someone down the line who wants to know what was going on in our heads way back in the old days.
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