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Delivering Joy
The joy of delivering the first copies of the book to Edith Renfrow Smith.
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Holding the first copy
While I was enjoying time with family on Thanksgiving day a UPS delivery alert popped up on my phone to tell me the first copies of the book would be delivered on Friday. I let out a little gasp of joy, mingled with just a hint of disappointment that I wouldn’t be home when they…
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“She gets 100%”
I called the lovely Miss Edith this morning. I’ve been on a long anticipated trip to Ireland the last two weeks. The month before the trip was so busy and intense I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her in quite some time. It was so good to hear her sweet voice. She is…
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Not what she envisioned
I had a really thought provoking conversation with Edith’s daughter, Alice, this week that has had me pondering things quite a bit. We were talking about how her mom was feeling about the book and the illustrations. In essence she said that when I first read the story to her mom she loved it. At…
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“If only he could see her now”
Mumford Holland was a close family friend of the Renfrows. A long time neighbor, they cared for him in his final years, and he left his property to members of the family. His story was told in the Hazelwood Cemetery Walk in September 2023. “When I think about Mr. Holland – who lived and was…
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The other Grinnell woman to know about
This page is one of my favorite illustrations. I love how Erica used the perspective and the star-filled sky. The other reason I love this page is because it talks about Laetitia Conard, another overlooked amazing women in Grinnell’s history. Mrs. Conard is someone Edith remembers very fondly. She was the leader of her Campfire…
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True depictions
I love this illustration. It’s how Erica and I envisioned life feeling in the Renfrow home when Edith was little. I especially love Rudy playing trombone (which he really did but which Edith never liked). The busy house, full of family, everyone doing something. But we were wrong. The Renfrow house would never have had…
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Entrusted with her gift to share
Yesterday I once again had the pleasure of sitting beside Edith and soaking in her charm and wisdom. I travelled to Chicago along with Tamara and three of the Grinnell College students who are doing Renfrow related research this summer. It was a belated celebration of Edith’s 109th birthday. Each of us had prepared something…
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Her voice! Sharing her mother’s wisdom
There is a small group of students doing Renfrow related research with Professor Tamara Beauboeuf at Grinnell College this summer. Part of the project has involved digging into an amazing piece of research done by Stuart Yeager, class of 1982, that resulted in a thesis, “The Black Experience at Grinnell College through collected oral history…
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GC Alumni love
On Saturday I had the great privilege of sharing my passion for Edith and her story with fellow alumni of Grinnell College in person for the first time. They had come from all over the country and world back to this special place that sits at the center of everywhere (as Grinnellians like to say).…
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The Renfrow Story 