The Renfrow Story

Yesterday I had the indescribably wonderful experience of sitting next to Edith as I read her the story for the first time. As I read the words of each page, I would look across to see her eyes, carefully reading along in her copy. I was wondering if I would (worrying I might?) see signs that something was not right – not accurate? not true? not faithful to her story and her lived experience? She was focused on every word, turning each page along with me. I held it together pretty well until the end, when the enormity and honor of the moment caused a shake in my voice and tear in my eye. As I got to the last sentence – barely holding it together and feeling the weight of the moment – her exclamation of approval came before the final words left my mouth. I will forever cherish her affirmation and her joy – and her sweet proclamation that I deserve a crown!

Her daughter Alice had arranged for us to be in a lovely room on the main floor of her retirement community. From the moment they saw the copies of the draft images Erica has done, they started talking up a storm about details for the illustrations. I connected to Erica as quickly as I could so she could meet them (video chat is such wonderful thing!) and hear all they had to share. We talked with her for nearly a full hour, discussing everything from shoes & socks to outhouses!

We finished up with Erica and then two more wonderful people joined us, Hannah Viti and Ari Mejia. Hannah is a former student of Tamara’s. Ari is a Community Storytelling Producer for Vocalo Radio in Chicago. Together they have done some incredible oral history projects. A couple of weeks ago, they came to Grinnell to do two oral history workshops, one for Tamara’s class and one at the library. They both live and work in Chicago and were very excited to meet Edith. I was honored to introduce them and have them with us during the reading. Their intention is to do some focused oral history work with Edith and Alice in the weeks and months to come. I can’t wait to hear the result.

It was also a great blessing to have my husband and daughter with me on this visit. Sharing this memory with them makes it all the sweeter.

Before we parted, I wanted to try to capture a bit of video with Edith that I might use in the Kickstarter video. She was so very sweet and kind with her words. I hope you will enjoy seeing it and sense just a touch of what it was like to sit with her in this moment. If you click here or on the image below it should take you to the video on the project Facebook page. [Note: frustratingly, this seems to be the best option I can find for sharing video content on this page with the WordPress package I’m using. My apologies if you don’t use Facebook and can’t watch it.]