With Love from Me to You

In the summer of 1965 my sister's Canadian penfriend visited us in our London home on her way home from a year in Paris. Beth doesn't recall the visit, the memory blocked out maybe by the bereavement that was to follow, but I remember it. I was ten years old.  Beth was tall, slim, elegant with stylish short hair and she was a Beatlemaniac. How do I know this fact?  Because she signed my autograph book and for years and years I tried to imagine this quiet polite girl whom I literally looked up to, amongst the screaming hoards of teenagers I saw on the TV.  My mother would muse from time to time "I wonder what became of that nice Canadian girl".

My sister Barbara, or Babs as we called her, died the following summer after a long battle with congenital heart disease, and Beth's letters remained sealed in a brown paper bag labelled Beth's letters to me.  They were precious gifts that brought the outside world to the bedside of a child who had been in and out of hospital for years.  When Beth tracked us down over forty years later she sent me more than a hundred pages of my sister's handwritten letters and I was so pleased to dispatch the brown paper bag with its treasured contents in return.  I expect I have already told this story, but it is worth telling twice.

Now, in 2914, Beth has published a captivating memoir of that life-changing year in Paris - memorable not least because she saw the Beatles play live not once, but twice.  Unlike most of us, Beth has kept her teenage diaries and is not afraid to share her secret thoughts including the early days of her passionate and life-long love affair with Paul McCartney - if only he knew what he has missed.

Now a seasoned actress, a teacher of memoir writing, mother and glamorous grandma, she is a penfriend to all who care to share in her daily thoughts, family life and adventures. She has written a fascinating book about her great grandfather and published a book of the blog covering the last few years including a trip around 21st century Liverpool with my own children.

So proud am I to have sat in Beth's Toronto garden and taken part in an inspiring writing class.  Now, back in England, we are setting up our own writing group - Writing History.  If you were ever a teenager, if you adored the Beatles and loved France then please borrow my copy of her brilliant book.  Or better still buy your own copy:  http://bethkaplan.ca/book.html