Last week in South Louisiana, I had a pleasant surprise when Mary Prudhomme came by to visit. Mary has been my parents’ next door neighbor for years. She and her husband Blue raised their two daughters, Chris and Sue, in the house down the street from our home.
Once I moved to Florida, I didn’t see much of Mary anymore, but about a year ago, she came to a talk I gave about writing life stories at the library in Baldwin. She had just lost her husband and had many stories she wanted to tell. She bought a copy of my book, Eating an Elephant: Write Your Life One Bite at a Time, and jumped in with both feet.
Last week, Mary came to visit with a notebook full of excellent stories and an anthology the life writing class she belongs to published recently. How exciting is that! Mary found a life writing group near our hometown and attended classes regularly, and the pages mounted up.
She wrote the following note to me next to her story in the anthology:
To Patricia,
Thanks for planting the tiny seed that grew into this wonderful experience of
“life writing.” I am forever grateful.
Mary Prudhomme
I asked Mary if I could share some of her writing, and she gave me this hilarious story titled “The Rosary.”
Congratulations on a job well done, Mary. I’d so proud and happy for you.
