Cocoa asked, 'With which fictional character do you identify the most?'
This has been different at different ages. As a girl, I wanted to be Anne of Green Gables. No, I wasn't an orphan, but I felt a stranger in my own country. Going off to a new land and finally fitting in with a dear kindred friend and a sweet teacher, I knew I would find the real me. But I stayed in Phoenix at my huge over-populated school and endured until graduation. On the way, Anne tempted me to take a new look at literature and poetry. She gave me courage to work harder at home and school. For awhile I actually lived up to my scholastic potential under her eye. I saw what was possible.
As a mother of many children, I connected with Jo from Little Men and Jo's Boys. I love teaching all sorts of homemaking skills especially cooking and sewing. I love teaching young people about their future missions in life through great books. Encouraging them to work in the garden and care for their own pets and having pillow fights and snapping towels during dishes and talking to them about improving character and habits, I could see myself walking right beside Jo. Operating a school for young people, I've rarely received anything towards my expenses or time. Now most of my scholars are adults, out in the world and making a difference. Writing whenever I can, loving my children, and being entirely devoted to my husband, I am very much like Jo the adult woman. And I have to say, like Fritz my husband understands my feelings that I didn’t belong, like I am too strange for normal people. My dear, sweet husband loves me because of my outlook and talents. Jo had similar feelings and experiences that she overcame. Her individuality made her made her a strong, capable, compassionate woman. Anne and Jo helped me leave behind self-doubt. Jo and Anne and I are as like minded as three peas in a pod.
