It's never too late

Many years ago, I took a summer writing class taught by John L'Heureux, who headed the creative writing program at Stanford. (John’s acclaimed new novel, The Medici Boy, was recently released.) The class was full, except for an empty seat next to me. Just as the class was about to start, a white-haired old lady opened the door, apologized for being late, and sat down beside me.

John started that first class by having everyone around conference table introduce themselves and tell a bit about their writing to date. When my neighbor’s turn came, she said her name was Harriet Doerr and had just moved back to the United States from Mexico, where her husband had worked for years as a mining consultant. Other than the book she was working on, she hadn’t ever written anything before, other than letters to family.

For our next class, John asked us to come prepared to read something we had written. Most were papers most had written in high school and been given high marks by their teachers there. Everyone yawned or rolled their eyes as Harriet tried to quiet her quivering nerves so she would read her story. This is what she read:

In early November there was an emergency. Sara left Ibarra at midnight, arrived in Concepcion at one, and for the rest of her life could recapture this hour whole and bright, polished as it had been with fear. Time failed to blur the images and five years later, or even ten, glimpses of them would intervene between her and a gathering of people, a display in a shop window, her own reflection in the glass. She would never afterward stand under a full moon without seeing corn shocks and chaparral, ditches flooded yellow with wildflowers, the chandeliered lobby of the Hotel Paris, and the telephone on the reception desk, without hearing the doctor’s voice as he answered. “Bueno,” he had begun. “Bueno, senora.”

We were speechless. She looked shyly up, afraid everyone hated it. But it was wonderful. Harriet Doerr went on to finish and publish her book, Stones for Ibarra, which was selected as a National Book Award winner. Her second novel, Consider this, Senora, was also very well received.

It’s never too late to start writing.