Our grandmother was a remarkable human. She was loved by all who knew her and she loved and cared for everyone she knew.

Beatrice Mildred Tryon was born November 21, 1917 and she passed on February 20, 2011. For 68 of her 93 years of life, she wrote daily in her diary. Very few days were ever missed. And while her entries were not verbose, they provide us remarkable insight to her personal world and her views of the world in which she lived.

Before Grandma B died, my mother, June R. Tryon, took on the monumental effort of creating a digital version of Grandma B’s nearly 25,000 diary entries—sitting at a Macintosh notebook computer typing in entry after entry. Mom explained why in a note she wrote when the project was finished:

Completing Mom Tryon’s diary has been a labor of love.

The idea started as a result of Mom expressing how nice it would be if she could re read her diaries which she started in 1943. Because of her vision that task would be very difficult, if not impossible to do.

The early diaries were 5-year diaries, small in format, leather bound, with a strap and key. Each page had a small space for an entry to be written each year for 5 years. Needless to say, after all those years, many of the entries were blurred and distorted.

But, it seemed like such a worthy task that the project began.

I had decided to use 18-point type and arrange each year in a separate 3-ring notebook. Each completed notebook had the year placed on the outside spine so that it would be clearly visible to Mom. Additionally, I decided to reduce the type size and make a copy of each year for Mom’s son Jim. Two more copies were made for our two sons, Steven and Daniel. And an additional copy we kept for ourselves.

My copies have been arranged numerically in four 4-inch binders with tabs to indicate the year. An impressive document to say the least. (Approximately 2015 pages).

As the project moved along, we would take the completed years to Mom. They got a lot of attention since her friends, and relatives were always curious to check specific dates to see what she may have written on those days. The diaries, even without the large print addition, had always been a source of accurate information about births, deaths, worldly events, local news and family happenings. People would often come to her to have her check out some information they knew would have been accurately recorded in her diary.

Over time, the historic record cannot be ignored. For it offers vast information about people, places, and the growing and changing world in which she lived.

Throughout the document, Bea’s optimistic and positive outlook is evident. She loved her husband, her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. She loved her relatives and like her own mother, took great pride in knowing her family history. She loved her neighbors and cared about them. She offered her talents and gifts to the world in which she lived, and her diaries reflect the faith she had throughout her entire life.

Unfortunately, the 18-point yearly records were not completed before her passing in the winter of 2011. I regret that I did not push harder to complete the project before her death. I know she enjoyed reading all the years that were completed for her as there are references throughout the later diary years to indicate how much she liked re reading the years that had been especially typed for her poor vision. She would often write, “It is like reliving my life all over again.” For that I am so thankful for I know how much the diary project pleased her.

After her death, it would have been easy to stop the retyping. But whenever I reflected on that, I felt compelled to carry on. I am sure she would have wanted me to complete the project. Furthermore, I wanted Jim, and our family to see the whole picture. To understand the roots of their upbringing, and know this person they called mom, grandma, or great grandma. So the completed work is here before us.

Her last entry, December 28, 2010 was “Jim home”, a reference to his being out of town and her need to know he was now nearby. It was almost as if she was waiting for his return to begin the process we all realized would shortly be her last days with us.

Since her last entry was December 28, Vernon will add some entries to the 2011 diary using notes he took until her passing.

Living in a day of computer technology (A far cry from the beginning of the diary) our son Steven has built a website called grandmothersdiary.com On that site, you too can read or browse the diary years at your leisure.

We hope you enjoy reading and searching through Grandmother’s Diary!