The Long Journey Home (48 page)

I am forever indebted to Katherine Kendall, without whose help I might not have survived the stroke or healed enough to write this book, and to my brother Wyman Richter and his wife, Anne, whose help in telling me long-forgotten dates and places was essential. I’m grateful for the support of Barbara Jenkins, fellow writer and dear friend, whose brilliant and creative approach to speech therapy at Cooley-Dickinson Hospital in Northampton was a major contribution to my learning to speak again, and for all the help she continued to give me long after formal therapy was over. I’m also grateful for the support of Angela Manssolillo, my speech therapist in rehab at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, whose compassion and understanding were major in my learning to read poetry aloud again. Also for Sharlotte Risley, my occupational therapist, and my doctors Charles Brummer, Marci Yoss, and Lawrence Schiffman. I am grateful to Pat Schneider, who published my book-length poem
Red Creek
, and to Bethany Schneider, who edited my yet-to-be-published
New and Selected Poems
. And to Peter Schneider, who helped me learn to drive again after my stroke, and to Paul Schneider, who introduced me to David Kuhn.

I am deeply grateful for the supportive friendships of Dee Waterman, Marilyn Zelwian, Alaina Beach, Mary Jean Devlin, John Hapeman, Pat Bega, Debra Yaffee, Peg Robbins, Kathy Crane, Ruth Gallagher, Maija Meijers, June MacIvor, Mary Julia Richter Coons, Rita Larrow, Brian and Piyali Summer, Delores Culp, Dennis Helmus, Anne Plunkett, Clifton McCracken, Charles Lewis, Henry Lyman, and all of my PCAs over the years.

I’m grateful to my cousin Margaret Rushin Anderson, who became my friend after we met at my fourth birthday party. We were close friends until we graduated from high school and Margaret married and moved to Germany, while I began my freshman year of college. We became close again in 1984 and continue to be close. I am
grateful not only for Margaret’s emotional support as I spent so many years looking back at my life, but also for all the rich conversations we had about our past as I wrote about it, and our present lives as we continue to experience them.

I am forever grateful to Pat King.

A former leader of creative writing workshops in elementary schools, prisons, colleges, and her home, M
ARGARET
R
OBISON
had a stroke in 1989 that paralyzed her left side and severely damaged her speech center. With many hours of hard work, she regained her ability to speak, but she continues to spend her days in a wheelchair. She is the author of four books of poetry, and an artist who has painted and exhibited many paintings in oils and watercolors. She lives in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, where she takes delight in watching the Deerfield River as it flows just outside the window above her writing table.