Dear Shirley,
I never knew I had so many friends.
They are coming out of the woodwork now that Anderson Cooper surprised me when I was in New York last week. At the end of his interview that was shown Tuesday, he said Celebrity Cruises is going to fly me and a friend to a 12-night luxury voyage along the Mediterranean. It would be aboard Celebrity Silhouette.
Can you believe all this that has happened since I went viral, Shirley? Did you ever in your wildest imagination think your sister would be viral? I know I have been many other things, but never this. That's what it says on T-shirts the Herald had made up.
Ever since that first email I got saying my Eatbeat column is "pathetic," things have been going well. More than 500 people took time to reassure me and buck me up. I haven't had time to go beyond to Facebook, Twitter and all of that. Some critics cast aspersions on the Wednesday Eatbeat I have been writing for decades. I can handle that, Shirley. I just tell them thanks for their comments.
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And I do mean thanks. Those who were beating me up have provided me the ride of a lifetime. While the television appearances are thinning out now, offers to write books or travel to food shows are rolling in. I have done a half dozen radio interviews this week. This whole thing is like a dream that just doesn't end.
What matters the most for me are the messages from friends far and near. Some come from people I knew long ago. My colleagues at the Herald have sent roses. Not once, but twice. They stood up and cheered when I went into the newsroom this week. All except Greg DeVillers. He pretends he is not impressed and claims he has never read my book, "Echoes."
I know he secretly keeps it under his pillow.
Meanwhile, spring is here in all its glory, and there have been geese overhead going north. The golf courses are open. I have taken Dot.Com out on our walks down Cottonwood Street and over to Belmont Road in the evenings.
And this week, my faith in youth was restored. I had a chance to be at the closing luncheon for the SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) Tuesday at the Alerus Center. Granddaughter Carrie Sandstrom bowed out as president at the three-state convention. Andrea Gleason of McVille, N.D., who goes to Dakota Prairie School, is her successor. There were 350 youth from three states here for the meeting, and the convention is coming back here next year. It has outgrown their former convention center in Jamestown, N.D.
Lee Erickson of Hillsboro is an organizer for the Northern Lights SADD. Your niece "Judge Gail" and my son-in-law Dale Sandstrom drove up for Carrie's farewell speech. It was another mountain-top experience, especially since Carrie will be attending UND next year. She graduates in May from Century High School in Bismarck.
I wish you lived close enough to take in these great times with me. Still I know you have plenty going on in Tucson. Did you know I was interviewed on one of your radio stations? And I saw that little story in the Tucson paper saying I have a sister Shirley I write to in the Herald. I guess they didn't know your last name!
Oh well, it's only 40 or 50 years ago since I started writing these weekly letters in the Herald. I do it partly, you know, because so many people from here spend time in Arizona. By the way, you can tell them for me that it's time to come home.
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Love from your sister Marilyn coming down to earth in the Red River Valley.
P.S. I need to go over and talk to the Red River now that she has crested and is on the way north toward Winnipeg and beyond.
P.P.S. I went to the retirement party for Mary Lou Liddy, and it was a hoot. There was a big crowd to honor her Saturday evening over at the East Grand Forks American Legion club. Her family joked about her working with a lot of losers while she was an area manager for Weight Watchers. In the past 33 years, she has worked around here also as a bartender and she has done home care.
Her husband Vince must have paid attention to the teachings of Weight Watchers. He is slim and trim. He said he has learned that before you take on extra food you should look at it and ask yourself, "Do I really need to eat that?"
Reach Marilyn Hagerty at mhagerty@gra.midco.net or at (701) 772-1055.
