[lit-ideas] Re: Mercedes Paul
- From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2009 08:34:01 +0900
What a wonderful memory of your mother! Condolences on the loss of Bill.
Reminds me of something my brother said after our father died. It's a hell
of a thing to get up in the morning, look in the mirror and realize that we
are the older generation.
John
On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 11:52 AM, Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Today, my mother, had she lived, would have been 109. She was born in the
> same year as Gilbert Ryle, but outlived him. (They never met.)
>
> She was born in Moscow, Idaho, and was named Ethel Mercedes Jones. She
> disliked the name Ethel, and soon dispensed with it, becoming thereafter
> Mercedes Jones, and later Mercedes Jones Paul. She taught high school
> English, and journalism, for many years, and it was mostly from her that I
> learned to care about words and what can be done with them. For a long time
> after she died, in August 1984, I found myself reaching for the telephone to
> call her whenever I got stuck on an arcane (or just an ordinary) point of
> grammar.
>
> She read aloud to me every night, even after I could easily have read what
> was being read to me on my own. Often, she read to both me and my older
> cousin, Bill. She would collapse with laughter whenever she got to the part
> of Winnie-the-Pooh, in which Pooh gets his head stuck in the honey jar.
>
> Bill died last month, in Hailey, Idaho. I am now the oldest Jones cousin.
>
> Robert Paul
>
>
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--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.wordworks.jp/
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