Through the numerous writers’ conferences she participated in during the 1970s, Mom not only grew as a writer but also reaped many lasting friendships.

During those four years in Indiana (1973-77) she befriended Madeleine L’Engle; Will & Dorothy Kennedy – two writers Mom introduced and proudly “married off”; and Vesle Fenstermaker (fantastic name!); to name just a few.

Bill McTaggart belongs on that list, too.

Bill McTaggart was a poet, an author, a librarian, and a tireless volunteer.

Just how tireless? He received an award from the Mental Health Association in Indiana in 1987 for volunteering 25,000 hours to help the mentally ill.

Much of his volunteering was with the Logansport State Hospital, where Bill taught a creative writing class to its clients each week, in the hopes of giving them a voice. Bill McTaggart would compile the writing into an annual publication called Notes From The Flower Garden.

Here’s Bill’s photo and bio, from the Logansport Pharos-Tribune in 1984:

When her friend passed away in 1997, Mom wrote this in tribute:

The Far Garden

Lost a little in Thomaston
we turned to find
the jewelweed of a summer search

Walking the White Flower Farm
we reached a rise
that promised a far garden

All this yesterday dear Bill
before we came home to the word
that you had died
I feel like I am answering
one of your jaunty letters here
remembering your holy escapades
and plums for this friend poet
who thinks now of the gems you wrote
presented fresh from a far garden

~ joan vayo, written between August 28, 1997 and February 20, 1998

Here’s a photo of the lovely jewelweed Mom refers to in her poem:

“The Far Garden” © 1997-98  Joan Vayo. All rights reserved.

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