Post #81 – Women’s Memoirs, Book & Video Raves – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Welcome to Day 16 of Women’s History Month. To honor women this month, Kendra and I have planned a few different blog posts, ones that step outside our usual content. (See the bottom of this post for links to two of our blogs.) In a recent email to our readers, we posed the question, “Who is the woman you most admire?” We thought we’d share this response from Marilyn Waite as it shows how a question like this can so quickly take us to the realm of memoir. Notice how a question causes us to remember a segment of our own lives. Perhaps you’ll even consider using this question as a trigger for some of your own memories.
Marilyn Waite responded:
Eleanor Roosevelt.
I can still see clearly the day I was first asked that question. My best friend Barbara and I were in the girl’s locker room changing into blue very unattractive gym clothes. This was a daily class in the 8th grade. We often talked about those kind of things. I think that was why she was my best friend. We talked a lot about boys, but we also went into subjects most of our other friends ignored.
I remember she turned to me as I put on my “bloomer” shorts and asked, “Who would you like to be like when you grow up?” Without hesitation I said, “Eleanor Roosevelt.”
I asked her the same question. She looked at me and said, “I would like to be like you.” I was flabbergasted, what had I ever done?
Recently we reconnected in the Northwest where my husband and I recently moved. This was a benefit of being on the 50th high school reunion committee.
Barbara and I were talking about that “most-admired” conversation. Ironically it turns out that she was the one to see Eleanor Roosevelt speak in Long Beach those many years ago. But she had never shared that experience with me because a mutual friend had sabotaged our friendship. Now we both look to Eleanor Roosevelt as a guiding light in overcoming obstacles as we attempt to serve a bigger purpose in the world.
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Thanks Marilyn for sharing that memory. And to our other readers, “What woman do you admire the most?” We hope you’ll leave your name in the Comments section below. — Matilda and Kendra
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And since this is our usual memoir book review day, we’d like to point you to Eleanor Roosevelt’s autobiography for her take on the times she lived through.
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If you missed Kendra’s list of three women she admires and why, click here.
If you missed Matilda’s list of two women she admires and why, click here.
