I now live in Raleigh, North Carolina, a state as foreign to this Californian as France and England, where I lived for many years. However, after five years it is as much home as anywhere else I have lived, and contains two of my beloved sons and two equally beloved grandchildren.
In Paris, I worked for the French fireworks company, Ruggieri, which brought the bicentennial fireworks displays to Washington, DC. The company was already in existence at the time of Thomas Jefferson’s stay in Paris. As part of the Jeffersonian exhibitions in 1976, Ruggieri recreated an 18th century display on the reflecting pool in front of the Senate building, complete with Handel’s water music, similar to one which he might have seen in Paris.
I also wrote and published a bi-lingual newsletter for French businesses seeking to do business in the United States, and worked in public relations and advertising for several years.
In France, I met and married my second husband, and later we returned to his homeland, England. As a result I am infinitely enriched by the addition of his 3 children and 7 grandchildren to my own 3 boys and 4 grandchildren.
My creative writing career began in my early teens. I wrote my first short story at 13, and at 14 one of my poems was published in “Young America Sings”. It but has been sporadic since then, as life had other plans for me, until now. I hope to make up for lost time.
You have led a very interesting life, Kathleen . Love the remarks about the fireworks – how strange that they have been in France for so long because Ruggieri is a very Italian name . See you soon, Gabriele
A most interesting and wonderful person. I visit here from time to time. I’m like the Willoughby waves she talks about in “Noise.”
Hello Kay, I noticed an old blog thatyou wrote about a Christine Carpenter and followed you here. Do you know if she was a painter. I seem to have a very old painting by a Christina carpenter not christine and wondering if it may be one and the same. I live in AUst and found it as an agent of a deceased estate for a CEO fo a lrgae national bank here whos wife has just passed and she was originally from England and well travelled and a lover of art. Wondering if you think this could be possible?
I don’t think this Christine Carpenter was a painter – she was an Anchorite nun, enclosed in a cell next to the church for most of her life!! I wish/hope she had been, as it seems like a pretty sterile life!!
Hi Kathleen,/ Kay!
I ain’t realized who you were despite your mails.
I’ve read your latest thoughts, why don’t you run for office?
I wouldn’t run for office for anything!! I’m hoping the remaining years of my life to stay sane!! Would love to catch up with you. Are you on WhatsApp?