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Patricia Kurfman
Estes Park, Colorado

 

 

An around the world trip tip from Annie--one small carry-on, an ample raincoat with pockets, and Chinese restaurants from Auckland to India, Athens to Paris, and London to New York--food that was plentiful, freshly made, and CHEAP.

 

 

 


The thought of Annie's house being "cleared" has been giving me nightmares--it was so intensely intimate. I can picture her sitting in our living room scared to death because she'd just signed the papers to buy the property with Helge and couldn't imagine owning anything--and what a ramshackle it was before the deck and ramp, the kitchen, the "apartment" bedroom and bath, revamping Cynthia's "burrow", and tenting for termites--all done so gradually she couldn't believe what the place was valued at.

If you have access at all, could you slip the volume of Flannery O'Connor's letters out--maybe sent it to me with a card at Christmas--as I told Dolly, I've lost not just Annie but al the "story lines" I lived along with her. It's a great loss of a large chunk of me.

• • •

Mechanics were a mystery to Annie--as much in 1952 as in 2002. When she informed fellow teachers that her car trouble was a dead cell in her car battery, she was morally indignant over having to buy a whole new battery. "One cell Keppel" jokes occupied at least a semester at Edgerton High School.

• • •

An around the world trip tip from Annie--one small carry-on, an ample raincoat with pockets, and Chinese restaurants from Auckland to India, Athens to Paris, and London to New York--food that was plentiful, freshly made, and CHEAP.

Luxury bothered her conscience--as did the unexpected prosperity of her later years.

 

Pat Kurfman

 

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