But I hadn’t expected a letdown after Drawn Together was finally launched. It was such a triumph to
finally finish a very long project, and wonderful to see the manuscript turn
into a real book, complete with cover, pages, and illustrations. I realized I felt
bereft because I was saying goodbye to Berta and Elmer Hader, two meaningful
people with whom I had spent ten years. But they also brought many new adventures
and people into my life as I researched manuscript and art collections, wrote
to and telephoned strangers, and connected with old and new friends who shared
the same Hader passion. I felt I was also saying goodbye to all that.
But now my mail is bringing interesting surprises. One
day an excited email showed up in my mailbox, from a woman—Betty--I met
years ago in my small town of Roseburg. We kept in touch sporadically after she
moved away, and she bought a copy of Drawn
Together through the mail from Concordia. She had just started reading the
book and had come across a reference to someone familiar: Gertrude Emerson, one
of the Haders lifelong-friends. Gertrude was an adventurous woman, who took a
trek around the world in 1920, came back to the US, edited the then well-known ASIA
magazine, and founded the still active Women’s Geographical Society. Gertrude
married an Indian scientist, Dr. Basishwar (Boshi) Sen, and spent the rest of
her life in India. Betty had known Gertrude’s entomologist brother Alfred, though
she never met Gertrude herself, and she had also had married an Indian
scientist who knew about the Sens. She was surprised to find new friends in a book. I was surprised to find we had friends in
common. Who would have thought?
Another letter bringing joy was one from an old friend from
the northern Chicago suburbs—another place I lived for years. She found the
book through my blog...and I had no idea she even knew I had one. She liked the
book, which was good, but what was wonderful thing was catching up with long ago good
friends, and finding out what their families are doing. It is way too easy to lose touch with people when
we move away, but this new social media is reversing that. It’s a big world out
there—but it is also very small.
I hope to have more of these serendipitous events, as the
book moves out into that big and small world. I love feeling I am still linked,
though tenuously, to the Haders, people I grew to love without ever meeting. It reminds me
that past and present are totally linked, as well as all those people I knew once
upon a time and those I have yet to meet. It also makes those ten years of sitting at my computer seem worth
it!
Now that I have time to read for enjoyment, I plan to read other biographies, and feel connected to those subjects and authors. When
I was a child, history seemed very far away. Now I realize how close it really is. Why did I feel such a letdown?
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