Small Town Girl (53 page)

July 2, 1997

Dear Reader,

Greetings from Minnesota where I'm looking down from my second-floor office at our glorious new swimming pool and a totally relandscaped backyard. Much of last summer was devoted to planning and planting the terraced gardens and the serpentine perennial border around our new picket fence. It truly looks Victorian with the gazebo circled by blooming delphiniums and twin white swings hanging from our new pergola. Besides hundreds of perennials, I planted 1300 bulbs last autumn. This spring when they bloomed it looked like a little piece of heaven.

Most of the past year we had workmen in our faces everyday. We added a basement beneath the garage, an art gallery above it, and had our entire house re-sided.
Whew
! We didn't think our lives would ever get back to normal.

Last July I left the mess behind for five days and flew to Regina, Saskatchewan where
Family Blessings
was being filmed, starring Lynda Carter and Steven Eckholdt. Since it was directed by my dear friend, Deborah Raffin, it was a chance to spend time with her as well. Though the film has been completed for months, CBS-TV has not seen fit to air it. I've heard a rumor that it'll air sometime during the winter holidays of '97, but your guess is as good as mine.

Dan and I usually go somewhere in August each year. Last year we went to the Old Sheepherder's Inn in East Chatham, New York. We stayed in a lovely old converted barn with sheep grazing right beside our deck, and flowers at our door. Lots of my friends from the publishing world have country homes in that area, so we had a fabulous time meeting them for dinners and catching up. We also toured the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts for the second time (We love it!) and drove up to Dorset, Vermont to overnight in a B&B.

Last summer was filled with other fun events—taking our red and white '57 Chev convertible to a couple of car shows, beginning a tradition of attending our little local county fair with our grandchildren; surprise birthday parties for nieces and nephews; having friends and rellies to our cabin. Sometimes I haul some pieces of my linen collection and champagne flutes to the cabin and set up a romantic table for four someplace out in the woods or meadow, and we have a champagne lunch accompanied by birdsong. This year we did it in April and after lunch all four of us stretched out in the sun and napped beside a beaver pond. Talk about peaceful.

Oh, almost forgot to tell you that last August, on my birthday, I
accidentally
bought two Jet Skis: purple and yellow and fast! Sometimes peaceful picnics beside beaver ponds just won't do it. That's when we get out the Jet Skis.

In November I flew out to L.A. to read the condensed version of
Small Town Girl
on audio tape for Dove. I had written a theme song for the book which I also sang on the tape. That was lots of fun, though my pipes have definitely become rusty from lack of use.

Also in November, Dan and I flew to New York to attend the Literary Guild party, and while we were there we and my editors saw
Victor/Victoria
on Broadway.

December brought a new delight: taking our grandkids to the Holidazzle Parade in Minneapolis. There was also a nostalgic sleigh ride in Wisconsin, with
real
draft horses; seasonal dinners for four in our cozy library; the fanciest Christmas party we've ever given, with seventy guests. Then came Santa on Christmas Eve with the house full of relatives, and Christmas morning here with our own precious four: daughter, Amy; son-in-law, Shannon; and our grandsons, Spencer and Logan, who are now ages one and two. I tell you, Christmases just get better and better as the boys get older.

New Year's Eve found me cooking a crown roast of pork for the first time in my life (What a relief, it turned out great!), as we and our neighbors rang in the New Year with a progressive dinner party. They're a fun bunch and we do lots of things as a group. This is only one of our annual events.

In January, Dan and I took Amy and Shannon to Grand
Cayman and left the boys behind. We snorkeled, relaxed, and ate
verrrry
well.

Shortly after that trip my very favorite (and last surviving) aunt died. With her went my link to childhood vacations with my cousins and learning to dance and eating her good Polish cooking and lots of very special memories of my hometown and the time of my life when my mother and father were still married. I'm the oldest generation now, and I don't think I'm ready to be.

On February tenth, Dan and I celebrated our thirty-fifth anniversary with a trip to Palm Springs, California—our first there. And did we love it! Rendezvoused with some cousins and friends who showed us the town. We think we'll go back often.

The winter ended with nearly a month in Hawaii. We had three different sets of guests at our condo on Maui, where we snorkeled, sailed, laughed, relaxed, and played tourist while our ugly Minnesota winter wore itself out.

Spring arrived bringing a cold Easter, but we had a gang here for dinner and an Easter egg hunt, followed by more weeks of cold weather before those bulbs finally bloomed in the backyard. But when they did—
shazam
! I wish every one of you could have seen it.

It was in the midst of tulip season that I completed
Then Came Heaven
, a book set, appropriately, in my hometown of Browerville, Minnesota in 1950, the year I started grade school. My career began with
The Fulfillment
, also set in Browerville. I wanted my last book set there, as well. You see,
Then Came Heaven
will be the final book of my career. The day I sent it in, April 22nd, was the official beginning of my retirement. I have written since 1974 and have known for three years when I would retire. Though I suppose many of you will be disappointed that there'll be no more books, for me this is the beginning of a splendid time of life. There are still years to enjoy my good health, my grandchildren, my travels, and indulge myself in the luxury of devoting time to many creative pastimes that I set aside for nearly a quarter of a century while I was an author. I'm going to go to parades, join a bowling league, tour gardens, have some residents of the old folks' home over to my gazebo for lunch, decorate fancy Christmas cookies the way I used to, sew long gowns for my Victorian luncheons, loaf at our cabin—need I go on? My life as an author has been full, but it will be equally as full during the years ahead.

Already, since my retirement began, we've had a spectacular trip to Washington, D.C., and the Virginia countryside where we were guests at the home of America's premiere sculptor, Frederick Hart, some of whose works we own. Mr. Hart sculpted the three soldiers at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, among many other famous works. Besides the D.C. trip, we've been to wine tastings, a Minnesota Twins game, a parade comprised solely of marching bands, had an endless stream of guests over for swimming and dinner, been to a Glen Campbell concert, and been guests at our friends' new farm.

It's going to continue, too! On the Fourth of July there'll be twenty-three here for picnicing, swimming, volleyball on our new court, basketball on our new half-court, sack races and other traditional games, and a trip down the hill to watch our town's fireworks over the St. Croix River. The week after the fourth, it's a fancy gazebo luncheon for my six sisters-in-law, then a five-day visit from my friend, Deborah Raffin,
and a weekend of babysitting Spencer and Logan—

And so it goes.

Sometimes I wonder why I don't run out of steam. But I live by the philosophy that life is not a dress rehearsal, so you have to pack as much fun into it as possible. Do it now!

As I say goodbye, I wish all of you the spirit and stamina to make as many memories as possible with your own lives. I wish you loved ones to do it with, a surprise now and then, and lots of laughter along the way.

Thank you for forking out all that money for so many of my books that you put me on those bestseller lists time after time after time. Thank you for the thousands of letters, and for all the hours you stood in line waiting for auto-graphs; for the gifts you've sent and the stories of your lives you've shared with me. You, my readers, have been the lifeblood of my career. Thanks again.

All my best wishes,

Lavyrle Spencer

Stillwater, Minnesota