Pattie Macurdy

On this day one year ago, a member of our group, Pattie Macurdy, passed away. She brought us her stories of laughter, travel, and life on a rural Tennessee farm, all written in her own unique manner with exceptional humor and wise advice. I’ll always remember how the first story that she read to our group started out, “I was born on the day of the stock market crash in 1929.” That said so much!

I first met Pattie as I was leaving a Writers’ Alliance program at the Millhopper Branch Library. We had just gone through the glass doors and said “hi” to each other realizing both of us were coming from the WAG meeting. Pattie remarked on how much she had enjoyed the program about memoir writing, adding that she was working on her own memoir. She said she had just completed a memoir class. Right away, I thought of our life history group and asked her if she would like to join us at our next meeting…and of course, the rest is history. She came to the very next one and hardly ever missed a Thursday until Covid intervened.

As the monthly Thursdays passed by, we became better acquainted and soon she mentioned to me that she and a couple of other writers met once a month on Tuesdays at a local pizza parlor. She told me that after sharing some lunch, they all traveled back to her home nearby and read their newest stories to each other for comments. I thought this sounded like fun and told her I would be at their next get-together…and I continued meeting at Pattie’s on those monthly Tuesdays. That is how I became acquainted with two others who later joined our group, Pat Spencer and Ran Pyle, and then, later on our own  Betty Queen joined us at Pattie’s with her sometimes (may I say it?) unconventional stories.

One of our most memorable and special gatherings was for Pattie’s 90th birthday in October of 2019 where we shared cake and haikus, haikus via a special request from Pattie to each of us, her writer friends. And I remember a relative who had written and recorded a song for Pattie to share. As usual we had a grand time as she so graciously opened her home to us.

Once I was taking a mushroom id class at the library and complained to Pattie that I couldn’t find a real live mushroom anywhere to put my newly-learned skill to work. At our next meeting she directed me to her front yard where a real beauty was growing. She provided me with a tool for scooping it up (after photos) and a paper towel so that I could take it home to practice on. I was thrilled, and that was just how Pattie was.

After her birthday celebration, between Covid and her health problems, our meetings dwindled finally stopping altogether. Pattie continued to write her blog posts titled Pattie Remembers and she sometimes joined the Writers Alliance programs through Zoom. She published her memoir, a book titled Sunsets and Buzzards on Amazon. I stayed in touch by email, but not as much as I wish I had.

Pattie lived all over the world, traveling with her Air Force husband, and she took us with her through her stories. I’ll always remember her friendliness, her encouraging comments, her graciousness, her power-through attitude, and her special way of injecting humor into every area of her life. She lifted up everyone around her. Thank you, Pattie, for being my friend.