Eulogy for Barbara Holland

Barbara Holland is one of my favorite writers. She has a happy style I find lovely. She was inspirational for me to try writing. If you have never heard or her, I thoroughly recommend her.  My favorite of hers is titled “Endangered-Pleasures”. When I first took up blogging, she was one of my Muses.

I went so far as emailing her. I had never done anything like that. I wrote:

Dear Ms. Holland,

I have never written an ’email fan letter’ before. I suspect you get many.  I will keep it brief. I enjoy your essays and writings. If I could write, I would want to write like you do; I don’t mean in the same style, but in the same response: to evoke smiles and thought in my readers.

Keep up your work,

Regards,

Michael

To my amazement she emailed back. She wrote;

Thank you, thank you!  Hey, write it!

And so I did. Spo-Reflections was started.

Last weekend, I thought of contacting her again to tell her how happy I was for writing. I wanted to thank her for the inspiration. I learned she died, earlier this month. I missed her by a few weeks. I was very sad to hear of her death, and also I hadn’t contact her in time. I am sad to hear of passing of my one of my favorite authoresses and mentor.

This week, I’ll reread “Endangered Pleasures” in her honor.

In it she writes –

“Let us strive to be merry. Gloom we have always have with us, a rank and sturdy weed, but joy requires tending.”

Thank you Ms. Holland, for providing me joy and inspiration to write.