Opal Whiteley

When I discovered the diary of Opal Whiteley, 

I was transfixed.

Like Ann Frank, it is a child's journal. 

Her quaint way with words, and eternally open and strong heart

 in the face of harsh treatment is inspiring.

She is a sensitive child,

 living in a world richly populated with animal and tree friends. 

She describes finding solace in the arms 

of a big fir tree after a hard spanking, 

and enjoying the tree's song.

 

Opal Whiteley lived in wood cutting towns in Oregon, 

and was the most famous child of the early 1900's. 

She sang to earthworms and potatoes 

and through her child like wonder of the world, 

helped to re-enchant society

  after the horrors of WW1.

Here is a part of her diary. Although her mother seems

 to have little empathy for her, 

she has two adult friends who understand her.

  The man that wears gray neckties and is kind to mice 

did have thinks like my thinks. He did say for me 

to go write the fairies about it. And I did. I did write it on a gray leaf. 

I put the gray leaf in a mossbox at the end of an old log

 near unto the altar of Saint Louis. 

One of the books written about Opal, by the guy who wrote "the Tao of Pooh"

The man that wears gray neckties and is kind to mice 

knows about that moss-box where I do put letters for the fairies. 

He believes in fairies too. 

And we talk about them. He does ask me what I write to them about 

and what things I have needs for them to bring.

 I do tell him, and when the fairies

 do leave the things at the end of the old log,

 I do take and show them to the man that wears gray neckties and is kind to mice.

he is so glad. He does believe in fairies, too { 255 }

 As the family were dirt poor,
 Opals diary were sheets of paper, often the backs of envelopes 

or discarded butcher wrap. She wrote with crayon. 

They were were torn to shreds by a younger sister, 

and later laboriously pieced together in order to publish them.

Some more of her diary:

 We had lots on the table to eat tonight,

 because Jenny Strong is come. And most everything

 I did get to eat I did make divides of it for my animal friends.

 They will all have a good share.

 And they will be glad. There is enough for all

 to have a good amount to eat, which often isn't.

 I did feel a goodly amount of satisfaction 

sitting there at the suppertable tonight for a little time. 

I was thinking how glad the mice will be for the corn I have saved for them.

 And too, Brave Horatius will have good feels in his mouth

 when he sees that big bone. And the birds will like all the scraps

 that are on the plate of Jenny Strong 

if I can get them before the mamma gives them to that big gray cat. { 259 }

  

"I now am not at the table.  I was only there for a very little while. I am now under the bed" (her mother sends her there to await punishment)    "I have wonders about folks. They are hard to understand. I think I will just say a little prayer.  My, I do have such hungry feels now.  They at the table are not through yet. I make swallows down my throat.  It is most hard not to eat what I have saved for my animal friends.  But they will like it so I can wait waits until breakfast-time. I can. In-between times  I will have thinks and prayers. "

 

Some say she was mentally ill,

 and after being discovered living in squalor

 in the bombed out ruins of a London flat in 1948,

she was committed to a mental institution

 where she stayed for the remainder of her life.

(More)

  

 more images on my pinterst board

read the book online