My sister Christy is easy to love. I was smitten from the moment they said, “Meet your tiny new baby sister,” and it has been a pleasant privilege to watch her create a rich and generous life.
Here is a sample of her resume:
I went to five colleges over a ten year period, beginning at Wellesley, one year behind Hillary.
I lived in the upper floor of a barn for a year, with no water or plumbing. Below me lived Chester the horse.
I sold sandwiches at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969.
I lived for a week with the Poor People's Campaign in Washington D.C., right after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot.
I write down everything I hear, see, or think.
You guess right if you think that this list is only the tip of the iceberg.
With a ready laugh, she knows how to make the best of situations and find the best in other people. The families that became hers when she married Kevin mean the world to her, and everyone in that big, expansive clan knows the warmth of her interest and connection. She is a very good sport and a loyal friend.
She’s also a fine storyteller who writes about young people bringing heart, courage, and moral resolve to remarkable situations. Always a seeker, she absorbs the history, the setting, and the details of a time and place. Then she sets out to paint her characters with the bright brush of authenticity and tell their tales.
In Ursus, the hero is Danny, a boy on a mythic yet small-scale quest to rescue a performing bear. Surrounded by eccentric, colorful, noble, and flawed characters, he moves forward, seeking justice, trying to do his best. It's a good yarn with its feet firmly planted in the tradition of Good Kid Tries to Do What's Right. We all could use a little more of that.
For an exploration of books and the writing life, spend some time at https://christymccue.com/
She is never far from words and music.
This haunting image of a captive bear is by my brave friend, Jayne Johnson, a fine North Carolina artist and teacher.
We shared space in the letterpress studio and many fine conversations one heady summer at Penland School of Craft.
For her spring birthday, I wanted to make Christy a quilt. Living in the New Hampshire woods with her daughter’s family and two cats, she has described her situation as “my fairy tale kingdom world.” A soft, pieced & tied throw, tending toward the magical, would be just the ticket for someone who is often caught in the act of cuddling – a child, an animal, a book, a musical instrument. All the while cooking up a new idea, a new story, a new game, or a new adventure.
It took some entertaining hunting but eventually, I found fabrics with cats, foxes, and peacocks who promised to live peacefully in Christy's sweet kingdom.
Sure enough, everyone is getting along well.
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