‘Evergreen …’ at this time of year

‘Evergreen’ at this time of year by Ms Paige Turner
My short story ‘Scheurer’s Green’ is published in Bridge House Publishing’s anthology ‘Evergreen’. An apt time of year to launch this lovely collection of stories.
My short story is about the death of one Matilda Scheurer, aged nineteen, killed by the ills in our society. I first read my poem ‘Scheurer’s Green’ at a workshop in Cape Town. The theme was ‘Green’ and indeed, I found myself sitting next to Mrs Green. (Did she attend because of the nature of the theme? I didn’t ask …)
Author Tracey Farren also attended the workshop. Tracey wrote the wonderful ‘Whiplash’ which was made into a film, focusing on the life of a False Bay prostitute. When she heard my poem she encouraged me to write the novel. But subject matters will have their ways – her encouragement gnawed away at me and the canvas became this short story. When I sent it to Tracey she said, ‘It’s wonderful how writers seem to channel and express the voiceless dead decades or even centuries later.’
George Eliot’s last lines in ‘Middlemarch’ are ‘The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.’
I chose my great-great grandmother as the narrator to tell Matilda’s story. Charlotte Dukes was a fancy box cutter so it worked for me. She may have worked with Matilda. Who knows? What I do know is that my great-great grandmother’s voice seemed, as is colloquial today, to ‘reach down’ to me.
See for yourself if you think it did. It’s available here:
http://www.thebridgetowncafebooksshop.co.uk/2022/11/evergreen_25.html