Lea Glisson

Lea  Glisson was a member of one of my long-standing writing groups for over a decade--except when she missed for a Spurs playoff.  She published two memoirs--one of which I was lucky enough to work with her on as a writing coach--One Glad Morning.

We'd sit at her kitchen table and go over lines once a week and look at her family pictures.  She was funny and wise and wonderful.

Last night I heard that she had died after a few weeks in ICU and I felt such sadness that all I could think of to do was to write a letter to the group that has since disbanded.  We're sharing memories by email today of our oldest member who always walked into writing group smiling and then launched the meeting with a story.  Everyone loved Lea!

During the years we met, we had members in every life decade--30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s.  Then Lea turned 80 and we all soon jumped into our own next decades.  It was a remarkable thing to have members of such diverse ages and professions and interests for so long!

Lea was also featured in our book, Wonderful Old Women, and whenever the interviewers and interviewees met to share the book, she'd walk into the group and proudly announce the page her story was on.

Mary Beth Edgerton's email this morning said, "Thank you, Linda, for bringing me into writing group so I could have the honor of knowing this amazing, faith-filled, gun-toting, self photo loving, praying grandma, boundless life force, Lea.  You gave me a great gift.  I'll always be grateful."

(Lea's bedroom walls feature  collages of herself taken throughout her 80 plus years.)

One former member said--acknowledging that Lea was the pray-er in our group--"I think Lea's prayers got this Jewish gal through a lot of hard times."

"Heart-broken" is the word coming through in almost every note this morning--as we, though disbanded as an official writing group, are like a family of sisters who love each other and will miss Lea's presence  in countless ways.

PS: Two fun postscripts about and for Lea

1. Whenever I took a trip, she'd say, "Post my pictures along the way with a sign that says For A GOOD TIME CALL...."

2. In response to hearing about Lea's death, Deb Field wrote: "She's in the land of eternal ice cream cones.  We and the people at the drive-through windows will miss her."   (Deb was one of the co-authors of WOW and shared Lea's birthday, May 13th.)