Thursday, December 13, 2007
When I was a kid,"Auntie DeDee" taught me about begonias, how to make donuts, how to multitask. She had camel bells and a tiny vase from Greece and other things from far away places that were mysterious and exotic and the subjects of many stories I made up to try to understand them in the context of her life. I knew she had been "away" to "The East". I didn't know it was eastern Canada they meant. I thought she brought those camel bells from "the east". She was my childhood exotic heroine. I was always trying to guess what secrets she kept. I would watch the way she did things, like neatly rolling up items of clothing to get them evenly damp before ironing. I thought she had learned that from the camel people. Later, much later, when I would phone and ask her what she was doing, she would say she was playing cards with Viola. I didn't know until just now that Viola was her middle name. Really, do any of us know when we, by living our lives, inspire others? Edith Viola McGladdery, you were an inspiration! (and I can hear you saying "You don't say!" with a twinkle of the eye and a mischievous grin, and still leaving me wondering....)
