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Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life
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Dear Reader,
If you're lucky in this life, you are surrounded by people who sincerely want the best for you; cheering when your dreams come true, and encouraging you to pick yourself up and try again, when your heart is filled with disappointment. Today my heart is filled with sadness.
My mentor, good friend, writer and frequent guest columnist, Bill Duncan was killed in an automobile accident the Friday before Thanksgiving. Bill and I met 10 years ago when he sent an email, "Why don't you write your column on Saturday and Sunday, too? It's good."
I'd only just started writing my daily column and was still finding my way. Looking back and reading some of my early work, I'm not sure what inspired a seasoned guy like Bill to send that email. A newspaper reporter and editor for 27 years, a columnist, book reviewer, and a professor who taught writing just to name a few, his email was the encouragement I needed and confirmed I was on the right track. But it also made me scared to death to write the next day's column, because I knew Bill would be reading it. (I never told him that, but I imagine he's laughing right now.)
Bill was a Marine who at times, could project a tough exterior. He had a wry sense of humor and he absolutely hated talking on the phone. Whenever he did call, he'd get right to the topic and quickly say good bye. But he was also a warm and gentle man who wrote in long hand, a "what's going on in his and his wife, Ada's life" letter, once a month. A volunteer chaplain at the VA and a hospice volunteer, Bill was killed in route to the hospital to sit with a veteran who was alone and dying.
I am missing my friend and I grieve for his family. I looked to Bill as a writing mentor and now I can look to him as a mentor for what's really important in life. Sharing your gifts and talents, giving the best you have to give to others.
In his last newspaper column Bill poked fun at the overuse of words such as "pretty" and "a lot." "Both are meaningless words yet are so common in the vernacular today, it is as if I am swimming upstream against a strong tide," he wrote.
This one's for you Bill. "You were a 'pretty' great guy and I'm going to miss you 'a lot.'"
Your friend,
Suzanne Beecher
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
[email protected]
www.muffinsandmayhem.com
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(Mystery) EDDIE THE KID by Steven M. Forman
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(Mystery) THE SLEEPWALKERS by Paul Grossman
(Nonfiction) SISTER OF SILENCE by Daleen Berry
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So sorry for Mr. Duncan's family and for your loss too, Suzanne.
Posted by: Jan | December 01, 2011 at 12:03 PM