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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.