I don't remember exactly how or when we met...I just know it was through mutual friends...and I was charmed...this strong-willed woman with the phenomenal wit and keen intellect would eventually become my friend too...
She would come to share some of her best-kept secrets...how she uses Bag Balm every day to keep her lips supple (advice I wish I had followed)...how to prepare the best beef brisket ever...how to make "to die for" chocolate truffles...and mostly she just shared her loving, authentic, committed self...
I remember when she moved from the searing heat of the Sacramento Valley to the drizzly woods of the Pacific Northwest...a place I have longed to be for some time...my first visit to her new home...its park-like setting...seriously, as in National Park-like...she had restored and now maintains its resplendent state using a rake and a hoe and a push mower...my only real-life point of reference the Valle delle Felchi at the Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo, Italy...seriously, you can read about her hoeing around and the rest of her "idyllic" life on her blog Greetings from Coupeville...
Greetings from Coupeville...
I remember her birthday celebration there...tables aglow with twinkling lights, brightly colored cloths, beautiful food as only she can make it...three amazing desserts she lovingly prepared, each presented in individual servings so that everyone who was invited could try all of them...
I remember when she was writing her first published novel...The Last Supper Catering Company...she allowed me to read an early draft...the first line burning into my brain..."My momma died on a hot August afternoon in 1950, right before I was born.”...much like the first time I saw her new surroundings, her book transported me outside myself and my experience to another date, another place, another dimension...a place I revisit, and a book I reread, any time I want to be reminded of the goodness in myself and others...