I lost my mom three years ago this week and in the interim her older brother also passed away. When he died I came into possession of his papers and photographs. Among them I found this 1957 article about my mom in the monthly internal magazine produced by her employer, Reynolds Metals. It’s impossible, of course, that such a thing could be published–or even thought of–today but I openly admit that I enjoyed it. I laughed deeply at the ending, which depicts her as sort of a proto-cat blogger, and it crossed my mind that if you wanted to understand me better this would be a pretty good place to start:
I can make out at least two pictures of that dumb cat, which I remember quite well, on her desk and I’ll bet there are a hundred in the boxes I got when she died. It’s name was Sam.
I believe that I would have gotten along swell with her and Sam.
Oh, yeah. You guys would have really hit it off.
I got curious, Melissa, as to how a girl from McCook, IL, ended up at Rice. We learned, a while back, that you made a stop at Creighton U., but it turns out that was but one of many. I encourage your readers to check out your academic achievements, which are considerable, in the online alumni directory. They include a J.D. from the U. of Iowa. Wow!
In just those two sentences of hers I can catch a glimpse of where you got your way with words.
I can’t even fathom this article. But your mom is really lovely, and looks like she was a good sport about the whole thing.