(Note: Written on 3/23/23, posted on 4/16/23)
Pierre de Beaumarchais was a very famous French playwright with the ear of Louis XVI as the colonies were on the brink of revolution.
He was also a secret arms dealer funneling cash and weapons from Spain and France to the newly forming American rebels in the 1770's.
And he was quoted in my Mom's essay in 1951 when she was a junior in high school.
She won $7.50.
"Freedom's Open Door" was a lengthy and hot call for Americans to fight the threat of communism in the early 1950's. Her father served in WWI and her two oldest brothers were in WWII. She lived in eastern Montana and I imagine she sat at the farmhouse kitchen table to write this very powerful and exquisite essay for her English class that was then submitted to the VFW essay contest.
It reads like a college paper on American government and values.
It reads like a call to arms.
It reads like a young woman with very clear ideals and beliefs.
It reads like my Mother.
The fact that this 72 year old essay reads at all is amazing because it's taped on the first page of a terribly yellowed scrapbook. The pages that follow hold very old, dried corsages, tickets to the US Capitol, and handwritten notes about boys named Harry and Eddie.
The world of a sixteen year old Montana farm girl in 1951 - so full of dreams and ideals.
And
I only just looked at this scrapbook and read about Pierre de Beaumarchais tonight.
It's March 23, 2023 and my Mom has been gone five years today.
The uncomfortable angst that comes on such days sent me on a search when I got home tonight.
I thought I was searching for collage pieces to make a design of my insides so the light of day could calm and cleanse them.
Instead I picked up this ancient scrapbook that's been in my guest room for the past five years.
I sat down and was startled to find my young mother on the first page as the second place winner of the VFW essay contest.
When the dead have been gone for too long, we begin to search.
We hope to find a piece of them to claim, to cling to.
Tonight the very intelligent, extremely well-written young woman, who bore me just six years later made a visit.
I am most grateful and inspired.
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