as recorded in the diary of Ruth Radman, January – June 1925
After my mother’s death in 2000, I found a small diary among her effects. On the inside cover, in my grandmother’s handwriting, is the notation Ruth Radman, 1107 E. Clay St. Richmond, Va, Age 17. The first six months of the diary were filled with entries. But the small script and additional entries in the back pages made it difficult to decipher the contents and chronology of the diary. I realized I would need to scan and enlarge them, but it was a project that eluded me.
In the autumn of 2008 my father gave me a thick binder containing photographs and mementos of my grandparents, a collection my mother had distilled from the multitudes of pictures and papers saved by my grandmother. I carried this album back to Israel with the intention of scanning the contents so they could be easily shared digitally with my siblings and cousins.
In the spring of 2009 I scanned the pages of the diary and the earliest photographs of Ruth Radman and Leonard Meyer. As the pictures and the pages of the tiny diary were revealed on my computer screen, I felt as if I had opened a time-capsule of the Radman-Meyer family. The diary’s main theme is the love story of Ruth Radman and Leonard Meyer. But the backdrop is George H. Meyer’s cancer and its effect on the events described in the diary.
It is amazing to read the teenage Ruth’s words, to sense her consuming love for Leonard as well as the routine of her daily life a century ago. More astounding are entries in which Ruth unknowingly provides glimpses of events and personalities that eventually evolved into memorable episodes and figures in the Radman-Meyer family history.
I transcribed the handwritten text and reconstructed the chronology of the entries in the diary. I added photographs of Ruth and Leonard from the years before their marriage and images (found on the Internet) that reflect the places and events mentioned in the diary.
The manuscript is stored on Google Docs. Here’s the link: Ruth Radman’s diary 1925
Update
A year after publishing Ruth’s diary, I also transcribed and published two volumes of correspondence – letters written by Ruth and Leonard to one other, and to other family members. Links below:
The Letters of Ruth Radman and Leonard Meyer – The Courtship Years: 1924–1926
The Letters of Ruth Radman Meyer and Leonard Meyer – The Newlywed Years 1927–1932
