Marilyn Hagerty: World-traveling author returns to Grand Forks

Dear Jane Kurtz,

Welcome back to North Dakota. This is where you started writing. You were here in Grand Forks 12 years. And your family was living over near Lincoln School when the flood of 1997 sent all of us to nearby towns for safety. I guess you ended up in Walhalla.

I hear you are visiting schools in Grand Forks and Devils Lake this week. You will be speaking at both services at First Presbyterian Church Sunday morning.

There will be a "Flood of Memories" of Lincoln School Sunday afternoon at Calvary Lutheran Church. That's where your own children attended the makeshift school after the flood of '97.

Congratulations on publication by Amazon of "Planet Jupiter"-your newest of more than 30 children's books. You have been successful in writing about Ethiopia because you lived there as a child of missionaries. You have promoted reading there through Ethiopia Reads.

And you have found support here for Ethiopia Reads. The program promotes libraries and books. It has built four schools in rural Ethiopia. Ann Porter, former principal of Lincoln and Lewis and Clark Schools, has led the way in support of "Ethiopia Reads."

Grand Forks has not forgotten you or your writing. Before you moved to Kansas and then to Portland, Ore., you wrote your first books here.

I guess you have set your roots down again in Portland, where you were born. Still a part of you remains in Grand Forks!

You remember, I hope, that here in Grand Forks we plop our unwanted household items outside the first week of May. There is high adventure in driving up and down the streets. You might find an old bike. Maybe a table. Perhaps a high chair. Or a vase.

In my neighborhood, many of the items are scooped up within a few hours.

As they say, one person's pain is another's pleasure. Someone might want that old book case.

And you probably remember that in ordinary cities there are curbs. In Grand Forks they are berms.

Welcome back to Grand Forks!

Your friend, Marilyn.

Reach Marilyn Hagerty at mhagerty@gra.midco.net or by telephone at (701) 772-1055.