Lately, on the cusp of my 57th year, I have been contacted by and am contacting people I knew during the happiest portion of my life, my years at Hollins College, between 1973-76. Those were only three years, but they were packed with vivid people, memories, growth, and love that never quit, enough to make a life on.
Most of these people I have had no contact with since that time, though some, like Marly, and my friend and mentor, RHW Dillard, I have kept touch with and tabs on all along, particularly since I have gone back to the area of Roanoke every few years visiting R's family.
Yesterday, having joined an online membership workshop so I can get readers for my manuscript, I was talking to a writer named Holly Petitt, and asked her if she was related to Michael Petitt, who I knew at Hollins. She said no, but she was a fan. So I looked him up and saw that he, like so many at Hollins during that time, had become fairly well known as a writer.
I wrote him a note. Of course, I had already learned a bit about him talking to Dara Wier, who used to be married to him and has two children with him. She was a friend and teacher during those times too, and contacted me recently on Facebook.
It was another interesting and, for me, moving encounter, to reconstitute the past in that way.
3 comments:
Yes, returning is strange and sometimes good, despite Thomas Wolfe. I had a grand time in Roanoke this summer, though was glad to stay in an elegant apartment (thanks, Windham!) rather than a little room.
P. S. Quit with the "Old old," Robbi! xo
Sorry about "old." You're no older than I am, and despite what my husband says, we are NOT decrepit. Even my 93 year old father was not, so we are young sprouts.
Your return to Hollins sounds magnificent. How I would love to be invited one day!
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