Yesterday I spent too long in transit (car, subway, bus, etc.) with no time to write This morning I began to solve some of my writing problems while swimming (also useful time for planning menus and grocery lists). I will be at home today cooking chili con veggie (tofu ground round) for a vegetarian friend who is coming for dinner.

Cooking and thinking time.

And now, when I return to write my blog, something else has happened. The internationally famous actress Zoe Caldwell (born in Australia)l has died at the age of 86. Another one gone. If you read her obit you’ll see that she spent time at Stratford but also, not mentioned, at the (now Royal ) Manitoba Theatre Centre. That’s when we knew her, Bill more than I at that time, because the children and I were in the process of moving from Winnipeg to Stratford, while Bill called himself a theatrical yo-yo, bouncing back and forth between the two theatres (Manitoba Theatre Centre and the Stratford Festival Theatre.) Zoe starred in Mother Courage at MTC, directed by John Hirsch, and was a memorable Cleopatra at Stratford in Shakespeare’s creation of that legend. Zoe also imitated her smuggled cat on the train to - Chicago, I think, - Stratford had a run there—or maybe it was Montreal. Anyway, cats were not allowed on trains.

Later, after she was an icon in New York (FOUR Tony awards), we had a correspondence. She liked my writing (plays and poetry), though not enough to back any of it.

She was a legend in her own time. And now, I, “of ladies most deject and wretched… see that noble and most sovereign reason Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh “ (Zoe had Parkinson’ s Disease)…Oh, woe is me, T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!"

In late November , the playwright John Murrell died of leukemia (1945-2019), a Canadian icon, another international star.. i think one of my plays is in his archives somewhere. I was one of his enclave of playwrights at the Banff Centre where he held court.

Here I am—remote, unknown, unsung— left to mourn my contemporary stars and idols. i’m older than any of them but I still have my marbles. It doesn’t seem fair, does it?

I was trapped in an elevator on my way to swim.

I left it at that because I had a big day ahead of me. But here I am. The good news is I walked more than usual today: the length of the buiding several times in order to get to the elevators on the other side that would take me to the other side and access the swimming pool from there. We climbed the eight flights on Sunday when a fire alarm stopped the elevators. Somebody burnt something on the stove and that shut them down. Matt and I were in the gym and had to walk up. Neither of us was out of breath, I might add.

Anyway, that was the first time I have ever been stuck in an elevator. I had my big bath towel with me and I used it as a cushion to sit on while i waited to be let out—only about 20 minutes because very few people use elevators in the early hours of the morning so no backlog of prisoners had to be dealt with. When the door creaked open I got out but the elevator won’t be fixed until tomorrow (Family Day today, no one working).

The incident reminded me that I should teach Matt where the push-for-help button is to get help. I take too many things for granted until I remember that a challenged person does not learn by osmosis or recognition or observation. Everything has to be spelled out. I have to keep reminding myself.

So it was a good day. I learned something.