Tribute to Bonnie
It was the oddest sensation, like being visited without warning by a friendly ghost; or, better, by a ghostly friend. Let me explain.
Like many COVID shut-ins, last year I began to trade books with friends. And still do. The latest to arrive was American novelist J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey (Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1955). I'd read and liked Salinger's first novel, Catcher in the Rye (1951), so this one roused my curiosity.
Opening it, what did I see, penned on its flyleaf, but the name of a deceased friend, the late Bonnie Waddell, longtime New England-born Truro librarian and arts activist. The rest of the book consisted mostly of Salinger's long, rambling dialogue between a brother (Zooey) and his sister (Franny), about their American parents and siblings, but mostly about the pursuit of happiness in the arts. Which pretty much also describes Bonnie's sparetime activism hereabouts until she died in the fall of 2022.
For her funeral, someone asked me to do a tribute. I couldn't attend, but submitted this eulogy:
“Few of us get to do as adults what in youth we dreamed of doing, especially in the arts. At least that's been my experience. Though my first love was painting, I became a forester. And after a frustrating year in politics-ridden Newfoundland forestry, I took a degree in Fine Arts. Upon graduation in June 1965, college-broke now with a small family to support, I had two choices: teach art in Saint John N.B. or become a forestry educator at Lands and Forests in Truro - for much better pay. Which I did.
“That's when I discovered the Cobequid Arts Council and became an active member. Here was a group with a much broader vision - not just visual art, but all the arts - and a budget to boot.
Back then CAC had only a few dozen active members, among them Audrey Hanrahan, Charlotte Macquarrie, Glen and Nan Pierce, Neil Fisher - and the woman whose life we celebrate here.
“Local librarian Bonnie Ruth Waddell helped pioneer several arts initiatives hereabouts. For instance, the Art Cart Project, wherein we circulated six portable plywood cabinets, each fully outfitted for one art medium; Drawing/painting, Printmaking, Weaving and Sculpture, to name four. At each school, a qualified instructor workshopped their use. Transport, fees and re-stocking were funded by the Department of Education.
Bonnie and I were in the thick of that. For this and for her sisterly friendship, I pay heartfelt tribute.”
Had I read Franny and Zooey back then, I could have added a summarizing quote from the book. The scene is where brother Zooey, on the phone, exhorts actor/sister Franney, who deems most audiences dumb, to follow her dream anyway.
Says he, “I don't care where an actor acts. It can be in summer stock, it can be over a radio, it can be over television, it can be in a goddam Broadway theatre, complete with the most fashionable, most well-fed, most sunburned-looking audience you can imagine .... ”
But “Act, dammit!” was his heartfelt message. And, concludes Salinger, “For joy...it was all Franney could do to hold the phone, even with both hands.”
Right on, Zooey … and Bonnie!