Wednesday, November 29, 2006


A funny thing happened to me yesterday in the grocery store. I won't bore you with the whole "slice of life" but just the final few moments of the incident.

My husband and I were in line behind an elderly shopper. When she was done paying she pushed her cart away, her purchases stowed neatly in one small pink canvas bag. We put most of our things on the counter and I headed toward the end of the area to begin bagging. I noticed that the woman had left her purse behind - a small black velvet bag. I picked it up and went after her, catching up to her just as she was leaving the store. I held up her bag and she realized why I'd stopped her.

So you're asking yourself What's so funny about that? Stuff like that happens all the time. You see an old lady drop something and you return it. There's nothing funny about that.

I agree. That's not the unusual thing. The unusual thing was the look on the old woman's face when she saw the bag.

In that instant she was transformed. I saw standing before me not an elderly woman with white hair and papery-thin skin whose hands shook as she reached for the bag but a young woman whose smile touched her sparkling aquarmarine blue eyes. I saw her not as she was, but as she had been. And she was beautiful. Truly breathtaking.

Sometimes people ask where I "find" my characters. First of all, my characters are never lost, therefore there's no need to find them. They're all just waiting for the chance to come out and join the fun. They're bits and pieces of people I've met or imagined, bits and pieces that get pushed and pulled into position to create whatever I need at any given time.

I can promise you that the woman I met briefly yesterday will come to life again in my writing. The question, still unanswered even in my mind, is will she be an elderly woman or will she be the younger version of herself? I guess we'll just have to wait and see...and wonder.