I've had people tell me that Opal Whiteley looks like me. Well, as far as I know, we are not related. :). Our last names are a little bit similar I suppose...
I've always been interested in living in Oregon State. One night, I was online looking up the town of Cottage Grove. My family and I had visited there once while on our way up to Washington State. Such a quaint little place! I saw this little picture of a dreamy eyed school girl, which had the caption: "The Legacy of Opal Whiteley." Who was Opal Whiteley? Being very intrigued I immediately clicked on the link.
I read all about how Opal had become famous in Cottage Grove because of a diary she'd kept as a child. This diary had been published as a series in the Atlantic Monthly when Opal was in her twenties. In the diary, Whitely claims that the parents who raised her were in fact, not her real parents. Whiteley says that at age 4 she was "given to" the parents who raised her, this (as you can imagine) outraged Opal's family. The entire Whiteley family became outcast's in Cottage Grove, and Opal left Oregon... Never returning to her childhood town again. She traveled instead, to Europe, in search of her biological relatives that she was adamant, existed. See, Opal did not just claim that she'd been adopted by the Whiteley's she further claimed her real family was part of French royalty... That Opal herself was in fact a French Princess. The firestorm created by all this caused the Whiteley family to reject Opal.
While traveling through Europe, Opal had quite an affect on many people. She made many friend's who helped her and took her in; and many members of French Aristocracy actually added her to their family histories! But Opal did gradually deteriorate intellectually as she aged. She soon was unable to work or pay her bills. Eventually, Opal became a permanent resident at Napsbury Hospital in London. Opal died in 1992, and she is buried at Highgate West in London.
THE JOURNAL...
The story of Opal is indeed an unusual one. As unusual as her journey is... even more unusual is her journal itself. Opal was born in December of 1897 in a town called Colton in the state of Washington. The Whiteley family moved to Cottage Grove when Opal was an infant. She claims she kept her journal in her early childhood years (between the ages of, (say) 4 and 9). She said she scribbled the journal on whatever scraps of paper she could find, as the family was very poor. She claims she would scribble the words with crayons. Opal further claimed that one day, the journal was ripped to pieces by a jealous older sister. When Opal was adoring to be a published author as an adult, Ellory sedgewick, then editor of the Atlantic Monthly asked Whiteley if she had a journal. Opal explained that she did have one, that her sister had destroyed it, but that Opal had gathered all the ripped pieces, and stored them in shoeboxes, which she'd had sent to a friend in CA so that nothing further would happen to them. Mr. Sedgewick and his wife, took Opal in, and the shoeboxes full of pieces were sent for. It was at this time, around 1920, that opal began the painstaking process of piecing the diary back together. Once this process was complete, the entries began appearing in the Atlantic Monthly.
A CURIOUS THING....
Curiosity # 1. The Pieces. Opal's diary spans over several chapters in multiple years. Photo's of Opal piecing the journal back together show her sitting behind shoeboxes which look as though they are filled with confetti. These are the pieces of the journal! With much tiny fragments, how could it be possible that the journal could be pieced back together accurately?
Curiosity # 2. The writing. Photos of larger pieces of the journal, reveal that it was in fact written with crayons. The words are huge, block, characters
Curiosity # 3. The language. Opal did not speak, the way most others would. She would put everything in the present tense, and write everything as a verb, rather than a state of being. For example, a blind friend of hers was always called "The girl who has no seeing.". When Opal wrote that she was happy about something, She would say: I did have glad feels.". If her baby sister suddenly awoke, she would say: "The baby did have wakes up.". Rather different...wonderfully different from the way most people would speak. This makes Opal's writings a challenge to read without stumbling over her words (At least in my view).
Curiosity # 4. The Characters. Opal was best friend's with many animals, and she gave them all creatively thought up names from history and literature. For instance, she had a horse named William Shakespeare, and a pet mouse named Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus. She would go on nature walks with her little friends. She would hold what she called "chapel Services" in the woods, where she would talk to her animal friend's and pray, and remember the birthdays of people she'd read about. She seemed to have an expert like knowledge of nature, and would collect rocks and insects and catalogue them. All of the this, was usually done when "The Momma" would send Opal on an errand. Opal would forget all about the errand' and go off to the woods somewhere. And the way Opal writes, she seemed to be a spectator in her own life, watching the events around her with endless curiosity, but little or no acknowledgement that these things all had a relationship to HER. Her mother was always "The Momma;" A hired hand on the farm was always called "The Man who Wears Grey Neckties & is Kind to Mice.". No relationship, no physical description...Almost as If Opal is describing a movie she's watching
A rather odd read indeed! But it's charming and heartwarming... Almost magical. And the reader knows beyond any doubt that Opal knows what she is saying and she articulates it well! She might be in her own little world, but somehow, the reader knows that she is very in touch with her world and uses it to help her understand the real one. And yet, somehow, Opal's world seems more real than anything in a drab, boring explanation of reality. Opal put together two books of Poetry: "The Fairyland Around Us," and "Flowers and Stars.". When She ran out of money to pay the publisher, Opal put the last of her books together herself, with handmade drawings and paintings. One of these handmade copies of "The Fairyland Around Us" is at the public library in Cottage Grove. Also in downtown Cottage Grove, there is a huge mural of Opal, with trees and butterflies and a covered Bridge.
It has been suggested that Opal was possibly Autistic. However, she was never properly diagnosed. There is no way to know foe sure why Opal wrote her story the way she did, or how much validity there is to her journey in writing it. (Did she really write it as a child and then piece the ripped up journal back together and then publish it, or did she make it up as an adult?). Probably the most famous version of Opal's journal today is Benjamin Hoff's book "The Singing Creek; Where the Willows Grow.". This is Opal's journal with a history of how it came to be and some photographs. Wonderful book! Opal eventually went to Napsbury Hospital in England, and is buried at Highgate West in London.
Curiosity # 5 The intellect. How would a young child know how to speak French unless she'd been taught from birth? The Whiteley family did not speak French... But Opal's journal is filled with it! :). The family was poor, with little access to books, and the journal was written before TV. Where could she have learned another language? But is not merely that Opal had so much French vocabulary... Sh would change her language mid sentence... Go back and forth between the languages in one paragraph! Opal also had an incredible range of knowledge about historical figures and literary figures... The dates of their birth & death, what they were well known for, the years of there reign, how many children they had, languages they spoke and other characteristics that would generally only be known (or interesting to) someone much older with an extensive knowledge on such subjects. Opal's family spoke basic English, and at school, Opal was taught basic subjects like arithmetic. Where would she get such a scholarly knowledge at such a tender age?
Curiosity # 6 Very cheeky. Opal would break up large words into smaller words. She would spell these words like she thought they sounded. Each word she would "make" would begin with a new capital letter. This sounds childish, but it isn't, when you consider that Opal, just a young child had the extensive vocabulary of a well educated adult. For instance, one sentance has the word "Nusance" broken in two like this: "New Sance.". Refreshingly clever, yet amazingly simple and whimsical... And seemingly beyond the years of someone four, five and six years old! On that same note, opal would write about taking on tasks too advanced for someone so young. These tasks always involved "wasting" precious commodities that Opal believed she was using for some practical purpose (poor baby!). Like the time she gave the furniture a good shine with Vaseline, or when she decided to slice the ham for dinner, and retrieved her father's knife from the shed, sharpened the knife (as best she understood how) and very precariously tried to slice up this ham... Most of which went on the ground. She would take bits of what little food they had and give it to her animal friend's around their farm. Her logic was knowing that they were hungry and making sure they didn't go without, rather than knowing that her family would go hungry if she gave all their food to the animals.
Was Opal autistic? I suppose the world will never know. But to me, her book is an amazing glimpse into a child who (whether she made it up or not) used her creative way of thinking to cope with world around her, and make it wonderful. Magical, mysterious; childlike, but with amazing intelligence far beyond her years. Her mind seemed always filled with a sense of wonderment, and that's what she's given to me as a reader! :)
Such an odd story; sounds like a movie script. You told it beautifully!
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