dear alice,
i read an essay by Cheryl Strayed titled ‘Munro Country’ in which she describes corresponding with you and, further, goes on to discuss how she came to read your stories. it’s a long essay and Cheryl’s a good writer, a better writer than i’ll ever be. anyway, in her essay Cheryl talks, at length, about how she thinks her appreciation for you deepened after her own mother died.
and seeing you on a stage she thought that you were a mother figure to her.
i can’t say i think you’re a mother figure, alice, although my mom did roll set her hair in a similar fashion and, certainly, whenever i see grey hair in that pattern, i think of her. no, i suspect you’re a rather difficult woman who writes beautiful stories set in one place and that, if we met, we’d have a polite little chat. that’s about it. you’re smarter than me, Alice, and i don’t think you’d suffer fools gladly.
have you ever been just a little bit foolish?
PS here’s the link to Cheryl’s essay, in case you’re wondering what i’m talking about. http://www.missourireview.org/content/dynamic/view_text.php?text_id=2519