Preserving a Family Memoir!

Here’s some hometown news from Joanne Coffin Ilkin, an old friend from Stambaugh High School. To both preserve a family memory and give her daughter Pinar a gift at the same time, she wrote the following play:

Real life characters:
Cecelia: Joanne’s friend.
Pinar: Joanne’s daughter.

The action takes place at a 2006 All-School Reunion in Iron River, Michigan.

CECELIA:  You must be Joanne’s daughter.

PINAR: Oh? Who?

CECELIA:  Joanne Coffin, of course.

PINAR: Oh…yes, I am.

CECELIA: Come sit with me! I have something to tell you about your grandmother Kata (Katherine Kruzich) and your mother Joanne.

PINAR: Okay.

CECELIA:  I have a little story to tell you about when your mother was a baby.

PINAR: Go on.

CECELIA:  My mother offered Kata my baby carriage because she did not have one and she accepted it graciously. Your mother, Joanne, rode and slept in my carriage until she was able to walk and no longer needed it.  Kata returned the carriage to my mother along with the most beautiful handmade dress she had made for me and told my mother that this was all she had to give except great love and gratitude. I still have the dress your grandmother made for me and it is one of my most precious possessions.

PINAR: Wow! Thank you for sharing my grandmother and mother with me!

CECELIA: The pleasure is all mine, dear.