Mom had a good friend named Ruth. She was a teacher and a writer.

Once they met, they were friends for life.

I’m pretty sure that’s who this poem is about, as apparently Ruth was 11 years older than Mom and passed away in 1996.

Tribute

I remember us both Ruth
putting on perfume
girding for grace in the restless classroom

This morning I anoint myself for grit
in emptying our kitchen cabinets
I think of you posting my poems
like royal proclamations
on your own kitchen cabinets

~ joan vayo October 20, 1999

Ruth was an English teacher in Indianapolis for nearly three decades. She was the first female president of the Indiana University Alumni Association.

Ruth and Mom met in the mid 1970s, when we lived just outside of Indianapolis. After Mom spoke to several of her English classes, Ruth wrote a glowing letter of reference, as detailed in this earlier story.

There’s a second poem in Mom’s archives that mentions Ruth. I’m not sure that the timing fits, so it may well be another friend by that name.

Either way, I hope you get a kick out of it:

late late show

she had highly recommended it to me

four years later
seeing the film on television
thinking of ruth
returned to work
children in school now
three in the house
tom in the next town

four years later
a thousand miles away
alone in an old house
I saw the film she highly recommended
it was full of crap

~ joan vayo December 9, 1976

If I ever make it to the Pearly Gates, I think the first question I’ll have for Mom is, “What movie, Mom? What movie?”

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“Tribute” © 1999 Joan Vayo. All rights reserved.

“late late show” © 1976 Joan Vayo. All rights reserved.

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