Another writer once compared memories of someone you loved to a recording of a beautiful concert. She said the recording could never be as good as the concert, but it was the next best thing. One Drive posted a picture of a long-ago memory on my inbox this morning, and I saw the analogy immediately.
The event was a workshop at the beginning of a meeting of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in New Orleans. Supposedly, Carrel Muller and I were to present together on writing for children’s magazines, but I soon became the second banana in the presentation. Truth to tell, anybody presenting with Carrel would wind up being the second banana. Her tiny body held a spirit that filled any room she was in. You will notice that she is even shorter than I am, and if you don’t see her presence in this picture, you are not looking.
Carrel spent most of her life with young school children entrancing them with the wonder of stories and books. However, she also spent a chunk of time encouraging other writers, wherever they were on their journey, to polish and hone their work and send it out for publication and encouraging other educators to put some zip in their story-telling and book reading. She knew how to find something good in an effort brought to a critique meeting by a beginning writer with a ragged first draft. When the rest of us were stumped to find something positive, we looked her way. Carrel could always find a nugget of encouragement in the most unpolished manuscript.
I am glad that One Drive brought this memory to my mind this morning. I would love nothing better than to go back and be Carrel’s second banana again. In the next best thing, I have enjoyed playing her memory in my mind as I have gone through my day.