It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon here in Olney. Renovations on the bathroom and kitchen have been finalized so here we are sitting in our non-matching recliners….our Ma and Pa Kettle chairs I affectionately call them. Of course, we’re glued to the Orioles game and the PGA tournament.
I’m sitting here thinking how much I love this guy and how I absolutely do not miss my former life. The life I had before Buff Honey sat across me from the bridge table. Yes, I could take care of myself. Yes, I had a full network of friends. True, I had a satisfying albeit stressful job.
I remember those days when I went back online to try to find that companion I was missing. I have never had any success online ever. But, there are tons of happy couples who have met and, evidently, found their true loves. I remember telling myself ‘I am NOT going to have a negative attitude; I am the ultimate optimist.’
I started perusing/cruising online dating sites...I experimented with one I’d never used before, probably because I wasn’t old enough back then. I discovered there were many sites for the older set, so I put up a profile.
James...Omaha, Nebraska...hit on me right away. I looked at his profile...professional, nice looking, fat income, educated widower, loves God. I waited a day or two and sent a brief email back.
This is the response word for word:
“Thanks for the mail...I am so happy to read from you..How are you and How is your day going?...Hmmm you have a nice and sincere profile and I would love to get to know you..I am James Michael Collins by name...I have lived in Nebraska for 21 years and am formerly from Washington. I love to Travel. I’m white Caucasian. I am an Irish was born in (Ireland)..I lost my parent in Ireland..I lost my Dad when I was young at the age of 17 years old and three years later I lost my mom and it’s was very hard for me then..I went to University of Oxford in Oxford..I came to US when I was 22 to Settle down,In the state of Florida.
I am 62 yrs old, I am a widower, I have two children. Rachael and Patrick, unfortunately I lost my daughter 4 years ago she was 28 years then and now left with my only son.He is my life.His name is Patrick,he is 16 years old.I have a kind heart and I have a lot of love in my heart to give it to my beloved woman.I am an optimist and do hope that one day I will see a smile that will fill my life with sunny rays of happy family life.Mornings can be spent like two birds in the same bath splashing about,there is a lot more to my heart..I am intelligent, honest and good heart man. I have great sense of humor, respectfully treating a female in equal rights,..I do not smoke neither drink nor take drugs. I own a business which is my joy and passion for the past 10 years but would love to take time to meet someone special in order to build a lifelong romance..I am a Building Construction/Craft man. I am looking for a woman to love and be loved in honesty, faithfulness, caring and giving. I realize that may be a lot to ask for. I recite poems and poetry for fun when I am less busy. I believe that we were not meant to go through life alone.I am willing to relocate to my perfect match.I guess you never really know where the right person will be. I don’t think distance should be an obstacles in a relationship...I’d like to know everything! Your likes, dislikes, what makes you angry, what makes you sad, happy. What do you do work...You sound interesting and a caring woman. Hope to read from you. Take Care and Good Night.
Kisses and Hugs,
Cheers,
James…"
Writes just like an Oxford graduate, right????!!! I mention him to my daughter. I think you should google him, she says.
I do....James Michael Collins Omaha Nebraska...
Nothing in the White Pages...mmmmm
But something does appear in DATING SCAMMERS!!!
A post appears that warns the reader of a James Michael Collins in Omaha...here’s the excerpt that appears...
‘Life has been so beautiful for me until four years ago, when I lost my wife and only daughter, I couldn’t bear it. I need a wonderful woman to spend the rest of my life with, I hope we can start something strong and true.’
The Irishman, James Michael Collins, is actually Nigerian ...eventually, he wants your money.
Obviously, he didn’t get that far. I wrote back: YOU F-ING SCAMMER, DON’T YOU EVER CONTACT ME AGAIN.
Of course, that was just the beginning. I am the eternal optimist and I did not give up for quite some time….at least, until my bridge partner became my great friend and life partner. As Carly Simon reminded us in the 70s, “These are the good ole days!” ‘Nuff said.
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Thursday, August 6, 2015
My New Guy
Not to worry….I’m not giving up BH. The new guy is Kent Haruf. I found him way too late. In fact, he passed on November 30th at age 71, a few months before his last book, Our Souls at Night, was published. I found him like I find a lot of exceptional writers…in the Book World section of the Washington Post.
He’s a native of Colorado. Small town eastern Colorado. He lived all over the west….Wyoming, Nebraska, Illinois, Montana. Working primarily as an itinerant teacher for over 30 years and when he finally retired, he started writing acclaimed short stories. Not an easy genre for a writer.
A few years later came Plainsong, his novel of small town life in Holt, Colorado. There is no such place but it’s a amalgamation of several western communities. His writing would be probably considered stark but the characters he draws envelop us in a world that is both compelling and yet repelling.
Compelling in the sense that I think to myself: Wouldn’t small town life be so simple and safe and stable? However, repelling because I’m an East Coast girl. I have to be within driving distance of a beach. Repelling in that I was raised in a small Florida town and couldn’t wait to escape.
It was just too narrow, too rigid. I needed more adventure. Much more. And yet, I still have nostalgia for the pure souls that inhabit small communities. But, I have a very difficult time with some of the narrow views that abound there.
The contrast is evident in his story telling. Plainsong has several storylines but the main one involves a teenage girl who gets pregnant and is thrown out of her mother’s house. Her high school counselor arranges for her to go live with two farmers, brothers in their 70s who live truly isolated lives.
Although Plainsong was the most popular, two others followed: Eventide and Benediction. All were set in Holt, interspersing characters he’d drawn earlier and introducing new ones for us to examine.
He was in a second marriage to a friend he reconnected with at his 30th high school reunion. She was a special education teacher in Virginia with five children. Their first marriages ended and they married in 1995, living in Salida, Colorado.
In February of 2014, he was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease, which zapped his energy fairly quickly. In April, however, he got this creative spurt and told his wife, Cathy, he was going to write their story, his final novel.
Addie, a widow in her 70s, knocks on her neighbor’s door and proposes that he come to her house to spend the nights together. He’s a widower also in his 70s. It wasn’t a sexual tryst she was interested in. She wanted company, someone to share her bed with, someone to speak to late in the evenings. He accepted and began this blossoming friendship that was over the top radical in Holt.
For forty five days, Kent Haruf trudged out to his writing shed and sat down at the Royal typewriter he wrote everything on. He placed yellow paper in the typewriter, pulled a hat over his eyes and wrote a single spaced first draft with no punctuation or capitalization in order not to agonize about word choice or sentence syntax or grammar. He didn’t want to get hung up on one sentence trying to write it over and over.
His philosophy was just get it down and worry about those things later. He wrote a chapter a day. He finished his first draft in late June and sent it to his editor at Knopf who was dumbfounded. He had no idea he was writing a last book. He dropped everything to get to Colorado to help Kent and Cathy finish this stunningly beautiful novel. SPOILER ALERT: The ending traumatized me for days. And, no, no one dies.
The final proofs arrived from Knopf on November 26th. Cathy read them to him and he left us four days later.
He’s a native of Colorado. Small town eastern Colorado. He lived all over the west….Wyoming, Nebraska, Illinois, Montana. Working primarily as an itinerant teacher for over 30 years and when he finally retired, he started writing acclaimed short stories. Not an easy genre for a writer.
A few years later came Plainsong, his novel of small town life in Holt, Colorado. There is no such place but it’s a amalgamation of several western communities. His writing would be probably considered stark but the characters he draws envelop us in a world that is both compelling and yet repelling.
Compelling in the sense that I think to myself: Wouldn’t small town life be so simple and safe and stable? However, repelling because I’m an East Coast girl. I have to be within driving distance of a beach. Repelling in that I was raised in a small Florida town and couldn’t wait to escape.
It was just too narrow, too rigid. I needed more adventure. Much more. And yet, I still have nostalgia for the pure souls that inhabit small communities. But, I have a very difficult time with some of the narrow views that abound there.
The contrast is evident in his story telling. Plainsong has several storylines but the main one involves a teenage girl who gets pregnant and is thrown out of her mother’s house. Her high school counselor arranges for her to go live with two farmers, brothers in their 70s who live truly isolated lives.
Although Plainsong was the most popular, two others followed: Eventide and Benediction. All were set in Holt, interspersing characters he’d drawn earlier and introducing new ones for us to examine.
He was in a second marriage to a friend he reconnected with at his 30th high school reunion. She was a special education teacher in Virginia with five children. Their first marriages ended and they married in 1995, living in Salida, Colorado.
In February of 2014, he was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease, which zapped his energy fairly quickly. In April, however, he got this creative spurt and told his wife, Cathy, he was going to write their story, his final novel.
Addie, a widow in her 70s, knocks on her neighbor’s door and proposes that he come to her house to spend the nights together. He’s a widower also in his 70s. It wasn’t a sexual tryst she was interested in. She wanted company, someone to share her bed with, someone to speak to late in the evenings. He accepted and began this blossoming friendship that was over the top radical in Holt.
For forty five days, Kent Haruf trudged out to his writing shed and sat down at the Royal typewriter he wrote everything on. He placed yellow paper in the typewriter, pulled a hat over his eyes and wrote a single spaced first draft with no punctuation or capitalization in order not to agonize about word choice or sentence syntax or grammar. He didn’t want to get hung up on one sentence trying to write it over and over.
His philosophy was just get it down and worry about those things later. He wrote a chapter a day. He finished his first draft in late June and sent it to his editor at Knopf who was dumbfounded. He had no idea he was writing a last book. He dropped everything to get to Colorado to help Kent and Cathy finish this stunningly beautiful novel. SPOILER ALERT: The ending traumatized me for days. And, no, no one dies.
The final proofs arrived from Knopf on November 26th. Cathy read them to him and he left us four days later.
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