Magical Memoir Moments
Commencement: Go Where There Is No Path
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail,” –Ralph Waldo Emerson. Graduation Day 1970. I was nervous and excited. My friend Elvin and I were the student commencement speakers. We marched with the college president. After that day, we would not see each other…
Do You Say, "Have a Nice Day"? If Not, Why Not?
When you part from someone, do you have a favorite farewell blessing to utter? Other languages, French, German, and Spanish, for example, have much more graceful words than the English “Good-Bye” or “So long!” Witness this song written for English speakers about a famous multi-lingual Austrian family: In America, in the decade that followed The…
Taking a Turn Toward the Sixties, Mennonite Memoir Style
1966 That’s the year I heard the gravel crunch in the driveway of our Pennsylvania farm as my parents drove me and a few worldly possessions to Eastern Mennonite College. Today I’m suddenly curious about the world I lived in then and alert to the many other windows to the past currently online. Today I’ll…
The Tie that Binds: How Mennonite College Friendships Grew from Twig to Vine
I’ve just said good-bye to my three closest college friends: Mary, Tina, and Gloria. We gathered in Gloria’s home, State College, Pennsylvania, just to renew our friendship for three days. This photo was taken next to a pergola covered with trumpet vine. The story of how the vine grew over time, told by Gloria the…
Catherine R. Mumaw: A Different Kind of Mother's Day Tribute
Who mothered you in addition to or instead of or beside your biological mother? As we celebrate mothers this Sunday, I invite you to answer this question. For me, there were many such women. Women in my family; Mary Lauver, our pastor’s wife and a leader in her own right, and many others in my…
A Mennonite Memoir Filled with Awe: Don Jacobs' What a Life!
I’m grateful today for publishers and publications that allow small groups of people to keep their collective identity alive. Good Books is one of those publishers. Mennonite World Review offers a place for readers to connect to the books. Hurrah for both! April 1 issue Voice of awe and gratitude by Shirley Hershey Showalter Is it…
Shirley Kurtz on the Difference Between Writing Memoir and Fiction
Welcome today to Shirley Kurtz, another memoirist and Mennonite. Shirley and I graduated from Eastern Mennonite College (now university) and both of us have used our English majors as writers all our lives. Shirley, however, began writing books long ago and has published one memoir, several children’s books, and now a novel. I asked her to reflect…