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...]
Virginia Woolf and My First Wave
I can't say for certain when I discovered Virginia Stephen Woolf (1882-1941). Sometime during my teens I read her essay, The Waves, and felt relief as the stream of my own consciousness was echoed on the pages I was reading. I am not a Virginia Woolf scholar, and I don't own any fancy versions or first editions, but the well-worn paperbacks on my bookshelf never fail to bring me pleasure and renew that original sense of relief, validation, excitement, and energy that comes from … [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...]
A Woman’s Century of Wisdom: Margery Binkerd Wells Steer
For the twelfth day of Women's History Month, I honor my maternal grandmother, Margery Binkerd Wells Steer. She was born on a farm in New Canaan Connecticut, August 29th, 1899. She died at her daughter's home in Merchantville, New Jersey on April 10, 1992. In her 92 years, she was fond of remarking how much change she had witnessed and participated in. She came of age as women won the right to vote. She … [Read more...]
Day 11 of Women’s History Month: Dear Abby Still Rules!
It's hard to follow yesterday's Facebook tribute to Susan Bass Levin, esteemed former mayor of Cherry Hill and all-around mover and shaker, but as I considered my teenage quest for wisdom, I thought of a source I assumed had become obsolete, the newspaper column, Dear Abby. With very little research, I found the online column alive and kicking. It's now written by Jeanne Phillips, daughter of the original advice columnist, Pauline Esther … [Read more...]
Summer’s End
When I saw this painting on Alice's easel, I cried. She was going to die, and she knew it. That's what I saw. My mother loved what she called "jumping off places" like this path across the dunes to the ocean. I couldn't let the painting out of my life, so I bought it and hung it in my studio. One day I was writing about the painting and I noticed that the two figures crossing the dunes resembled the two of us. My mother was shorter than me, and she favored red. I love blue. The conversation … [Read more...]
Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing
I am happy to participate in this writer’s round robin after being tagged by the lovely poet Lorraine Henrie Lins (thanks, Lorraine!). After I answer the questions, I’ll tag two additional wonderful writers. What is the working title of your book? The working title was The Alice Book or OK FOREVER: Alice Steer Wilson’s Cape May. However, the real title – the one that will be printed on the book’s cover very soon, is Alice Steer Wilson: Light, Particularly. Where did the … [Read more...]
