My Writers’ Group
This story comes out of the year 2000. I went to a professional conference and by that I mean a social work educational seminar, and ran into a fellow social worker whose name I recognized, with whom I had had numerous professional phone conversations but had never met in person. By noon of this daylong conference she had asked me to consider joining a writers’ group she hosted with her husband. Members were working on writing their memoirs. After the groups’ approval, I joined with my fiction project on my own family background, namely John Lambert.
The group listened to each five-page addition of my text, gave feedback, suggestions and corrections over the next several years. I was in the company of some talented people, all of retirement age except me – my colleague, her MD husband, an astronomer, a sculptor, a news reporter, a baseball afficiano, an engineer entrepreneur and a world entertainer. Their stories were and are riveting and I enthusiastically drove to those weekly meetings.
At first I thought the meetings were in Wellesley, Massachusetts but six weeks in I learned I was in neighboring Weston. Weston is where my Aunt Pat (Lambert) raised her family before retiring to Connecticut. It turns out a couple of my fellow group members had known her and my uncle, and my cousins as well! Aunt Pat was my Dad’s sister and John’s granddaughter. This coincidental Lambert connection in my group amazed me. I am grateful to every person in that group. They encouraged, enjoyed and schooled me. Thank you!
