Yesterday, I helped out as my friend Sandy Sampson conducted an estate sale to empty her parent's home. I had to see how she did it. Sandy is an awesome daughter who provided much family caregiving over the past decade. Her father, Harry Trigg, died in April 2009, and her mother, Marion Jane Bold Trigg, passed away four months ago, on Christmas Eve. Sandy set her mind and heart to the difficult task of clearing out her family's lifetime of collections, and to do so with the willing … [Read more...]
The Promise of Mothers and Daughters
...this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don't like too much ... Jamaica Kinkaid, "Girl" Will you be there? ... Can you hear the truth? Tori Amos, "Promise" It's been a lovely meditation for me to sit down and write daily tributes for Women's History Month. Now, on the last day, I'm returning to the relationship with the most elemental power: the Mother-Daughter bond. So … [Read more...]
Malala: Standard-Bearer for Girls’ Rights to Education
This month of honoring women may be coming to a close, but it's been an opening for me in a way I never dreamed. As a writer who is given to privacy, revision, and possibly overworked revision, this blog accomplished what my mother said the shift to watercolors from oil paints did for her. I had to trust my instincts, post it, and let it go. Your responses have been awesome, and I will not crawl back under that rock any time soon. Thank you for reading, liking, and responding. So, yes, I'm … [Read more...]
Virginia Tabor: Artist and Best Friend to Alice, Cape May
Today is day 28 of Women's History Month, and I'm beginning to panic. There are so many women on my heart and mind. I'm starting to think in categories, such as: Best Friends, Sisters, Aunts, Letter Writers, Diarists, Newly Discovered Relatives, Mothers and Daughters, Musicians, Asian Women, Latina Women. I only have three days left! I can't cover all the women or even the categories of neglected women! I choose the painter Virginia Tabor because she is an awesome artist, a surrogate "Mom," … [Read more...]
Finding Our Great-Grandmother’s Stories . . .
For the twenty-fourth tribute of Women's History month, let's honor our great-grandmothers. Not one great-grandmother, but as many as we can divine, collectively, through letters, stories, personal experience, notes taped to odd and wonderful items handed down from generation to generation, and other methods our great-grandmothers found to leave something of themselves. If you are reading this, you have four great-grandmothers to puzzle over. In my case, I met one, Agnes … [Read more...]
A Sister I Never Met
Bernadette Marie Stridick (6/25/1951 - 10/10/1976) For the sixteenth day of Women's History Month, I'm remembering a woman I never met, but have come to love as a sister. I imagine she would have been a good friend and sister-in-law, had she lived long enough to celebrate my wedding to her brother. In October 1989, soon after I began dating Paul, he dropped out for a couple of days. When we reconnected, he told me that the anniversary of the day his sister had … [Read more...]
Before DIY Was Trendy, There was Erma . . .
Today, on the 15th day of Women's History Month, I'm honoring my paternal grandmother, Erma Rebecca Frederick Wilson. Born on July 1, 1890, Erma spent her entire 97 years in Columbiana, Ohio. We visited her at the house where my father grew up, one block from Main Street. Her home was spotless and she always filled a table with fresh vegetables from her kitchen garden, pickles, canned peaches, cottage cheese, freshly made bread, pies, cookies and home-made preserves. She was the epitome of the … [Read more...]
Women’s Stories Count and VIDA Keeps Track . . .
For women to make history, we must tell our stories and listen to each other. We must name names. We must count. When I promised my mother that I would curate her art and archives, neither of us realized how difficult it would be. I counted the paintings in her studio and the family collection, mailed a request for information to her collectors, and compiled a database of 1,200 works, out of an estimated 2,000 she created during her lifetime. I selected a representative 200 color plates … [Read more...]
Pork Cake or Persimmon: Women’s Stories Evolve
I've always found groups of women produce fascinating stories and brilliant solutions. Whenever I am in a transition, there are women around me in the same boat. We bond, magnetically –like Spanky and Our Gang– and the tide pulls us forth. There was an early writing group I dubbed Ladies of the Lake (LOL); then another, Great Ones (GO); I convened a series of Goddess Brunches to … [Read more...]
Honoring Our Mothers; Honoring Ourselves
On Monday, I had the privilege of sharing stories about our mothers with ten women I've known through my writing circles, yoga, and teaching. Our mothers had names like Evangeline, Antoinette and Margery. They raised gaggles of children, cleaned house wearing spike heels, and had dinner ready for their husbands every evening. We said their names. We honored their struggles. We shared our own. I've heard from many more than could attend that the pain of unresolved questions about mother … [Read more...]