"At 5 and 95, Mother Was a Star" by Arlene Mandell
— Word spread, and everyone came to watch.
“I feel like a schoolgirl starting my life all over again.”
Arlene Mandell is an artist living in Linville, North Carolina; enjoy her colorful portraits at Carlton Gallery in Banner Elk. A native New Yorker, she taught in Manhattan’s Head Start program, then joined a travel magazine in Miami, Florida, where she met Captain Dan. Their relocation to the Blue Ridge Mountains inspired a love of writing. Her memoirs “Eye of the Dolphin,” “Artist Borne,” “Gobsmacked in the Gulfstream,” “Renegade Daughter,” “It Started with a Typo,” “Shopping for the Homeless” “Thirteen Candles in the Dark,” and “The Promise of Romance” appear on “6-minute Stories” podcast.
Author’s Talk
I thought life, as I knew it, was over when I ended a 22-year marriage and moved in with my mother. However, it was NOT over; it was just the beginning of a new chapter—for ME.
Arlene Mandell with her mother, Helen
I thought my mother’s life was over when she could no longer live independently. But it was NOT over; just the beginning of a new chapter—for HER.
A hopeful article I’d saved on aging suggested that just when you think all the good things are behind you, there COULD be “one more wonderful thing”—large or small—waiting to happen.
That “one more wonderful thing” happened to my mother in her nineties, as you will hear in this podcast. It happened to me, too, as an artist in my late seventies, relocating to the Blue Ridge Mountains. My goal was to create a catalog of my own artwork to give to friends and include a few stories to show the person behind the artist.
Then, a surprising thing happened. Once I sat down to write, I didn’t want to stop. Pursuing this unexpected new interest by joining a writing workshop, I discovered the “Personal Story Publishing Project” (PSPP) and their latest “Call for Submissions,” which encouraged new writers.
As an ingenue, I took a chance and submitted “Eye of the Dolphin,” my encounter with the magnificent creatures in Florida. A month later, dissatisfied with the story, I rewrote it and submitted it a second time. As an artist—not a writer—I was struggling with the story. However, with patient guidance from the highly-skilled editors, a narrative emerged that expressed exactly what I wanted to say. What a thrill to see that story published in “EXPLORING” (2019) and then hear it read on the “6-minute Stories” podcast!
The writing bug had bitten; stories began pouring out in response to the PSPP prompts—stories I didn’t even know I had! Stories of my own life and the lives of those who came before me. Having no progeny, I glumly thought those stories would end with my demise. However, through the portals of the “Personal Story Publishing Project,” and the “6-minute Stories” podcast, those stories have gone out into the wider world, and will continue on after me.
The longing to pass on my family—something I never dreamed possible—has been fulfilled. That “one more wonderful thing.” It happened to me. It could happen to you. Thank you, Randell Jones; I am eternally grateful. – Arlene Mandell