What a jolt that was, picking up the OMAHA WORLD-HERALD and reading about the death of Caroline Sandoz Pifer! Though why should I be surprised? She was 101.
Caroline was the youngest sister of Mari Sandoz, the Nebraska writer. I met Caroline a number of years ago when I drove to the Sandhills to visit Mari's grave. Even then I knew how much Mari meant to me. As I've aged, I've come to acknowledge her as my lodestar.
Her bravery in writing OLD JULES taught me, while I was still young, that it's possible for a writer to express her truth. Making things "pretty" was not necessary. I never could have written my novel MARCELLA had she not written OLD JULES.
Now I'm working on a historical book, THIEVES, RASCALS & SORE LOSERS. Mari liked that sort of thing. She wrote about the West, about buffalo hunters, cattlemen, trappers. But it is her monumental biography, CRAZY HORSE, that is my beacon as I write.
Wikipedia describes Mari's work about the great Lakota leader this way: "Sandoz proved to be ahead of her time by writing the biography from within the Lakota world-view." When CRAZY HORSE was published, Mari was criticized for the liberties she took. This was well before the invention of the term, "creative nonfiction."
Knowing my debt to Mari, I drove to the Sandhills, an experience in itself. As I entered that vast prairie that grows on sand dunes, I read a sign: last stop for gas for 100 miles. I gassed up. I knew the Sandhills cover one-fourth of Nebraska. Now I know it's "the largest and most intricate wetland ecosystem in the United States." But then I was looking for Mari's grave.
That's how I met Caroline. She took me there. Then she invited me into her house and showed me all sorts of Mari memorabilia. Hats, I remember. Then Caroline put me in her truck and we set out for a tour of the Sandhills, a region not noted for its population. Or its roads. We drove and drove across the prairie. Whenever we came within sight of a farm house, Caroline would slow down and peer out her side window. Finally, I commented on her action. She nodded. "It's a good thing to know, out here, who's home and who's not," she said. "In case of a breakdown."
So the news of Caroline's long and permanent journey startled and saddened me. I stand at the edge, wave goodbye to her, to the end of an Era.
from: a JoLt of CoFFeY
An Intermittent Newsletter
by Marilyn June Coffey
"BitterSweet Rebel"
some BitterSweet books
written by Marilyn June Coffey
MAIL-ORDER KID: An Orphan Train Rider's Story www.mail-orderkid.net
MARCELLA: A NOVEL To be reprinted Fall 2012.
GREAT PLAINS PATCHWORK: A Memoir
MARCELLA and GREAT PLAINS PATCHWORK are out of print
but can sometimes be bought from Amazon or other on-line book dealers.
A CRETAN CYCLE: Fragments unearthed from Knossos is a rare book.
To buy it, search eBay or other on-line book dealers.
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