LOUISE

[deanna dickinson mccall]

The small bowls are there, filled with arrowheads, unfinished stone tools, rocks that caught her eye for color or shape, square nails, and other artifacts one finds on a ranch. Bird nests sit on the shelves by the worn books so old their leather is cracked. The books have been her passports to travel the world, enabling her to smell jasmine, taste the salt of an ocean she’ll never see, and hear the rumble of elephants on an African plain.

85 years she’s lived in what is termed as America’s Outback, a rancher’s daughter, a rancher’s wife, and a rancher’s widow for the last 30 years, helping her sons on what she knows will be her last ranch. She has tried to instill into her grandchildren to treasure the world and all of its precious moments. Perhaps she’s not the last of her kind, - a granddaughter with tiny cupped hands holding a praying mantis hurries to show her grandmother.

[Cita]

The details in this one are WONDERFUL! The details bring power to our writing. ( I used to see a praying mantis and think about prayer. G showed me this week how they look like they are boxing! LOL.... just perspective! )

[Linda Davenport]

Ahhh...the gift of hope. Thank you for this...it's really, really good.

[Harry]

This is excellent!

[michael r. oconnor]

This is a moving, touching work of beauty.

[Sissy Anderson]

Wonderful.

[Teresa]

I want to steal Brown's word -- evocation. This was a nice way to travel to an 85 year-old woman's world and sense those of cracked leather on her shelves.

[Brian Michael Barbeito]

beautifully written
and very inspiring.

[Michael Brown]

Wonderful evocation of the resourcefulness and expectations built up through years of experience, whether or not far-ranging. Working the land seems to gift people that way. Nice job.

[Jenny]

Precious. Excellent.

[Gita]

This is a beautifully crafted piece of writing. The cupped hands holding the mantis are proof of the fact that we can pass down a sense of wonder to children, and that is the best legacy of all.