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We grew up in Indianapolis, IN.  Our father was a college professor and our mother taught Spanish at a local private school.  I was the youngest of three children.  Laura was four years older than me, and Liz was 9 years my senior. 

 

Fall was a beautiful time of year in Indiana...especially in the southern part of the state.  During the mid 1960's our father bought an old English touring car and we would set off on Saturday drives.  As a child, I always loved the book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang written by Ian Fleming.  It's a story of a magical car, a crack pot inventor and the adventures the family enjoyed together.  Those outings we shared as a family were some of my best childhood memories before our parents began drifting apart.  

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Nashville, IN was an hour drive south of Indianapolis.  The farther you drove, the prettier the scenery became.  The rolling hills, the beautiful colors, the Brown County National Park and the road side markets selling apples & cider made for a perfect family outing.  The highlight was the little country town of Nashville, nestled in the rolling hills.  It was a well preserved tourist destination that featured old log cabins, quaint shops, local artwork, and a country store with restaurant attached.    

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Several blocks away from the center of town was the Brown County Pioneer Museum and Old Jail House built around 1879.  It's still there to this day as is the two-headed calf.  It's a tiny two story log building and the interior was dark with low ceilings.  The cost of admission was $0.10 back in those days that you dropped into a small collection box.  The inside was filled with old pioneering artifacts.  There were even chains with shackles attached to the walls to restrain prisoners.  Up a flimsy set of stairs was a loft.  The highlight for us was a perfectly formed two headed calf encased inside a glass box.  As freakish as it first appeared, there was also something very peaceful and calming about this creature.  Despite it's deformity, I remember that it appeared to be perfect.  As if it were to meant be.  Perfectly natural as God had intended it to be.  The two-headed calf was the highlight of the trip for me yet I don't remember there being any meaningful discussions about this little creature on the ride back home.  Especially not with my sister Laura.  In all honestly, I had no idea the powerful impact that this baby calf had on my sister.

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In 1976, I had just graduated from college and moved to Fairhope, AL to start my adult life teaching art, and art history at a private school.  Unbeknownst to most of the family, myself included, Laura had been writing poetry for many years.  Out of the blue she published her first book of poems entitled The Hocus-Pocus of the Universe that featured the poem entitled The Two-Headed Calf.  The book was published by Doubleday, a very prestigious publishing house at that time, and won the Walt Whitman award.  I was so proud of my big sister with her gentle spirit and quiet nature.  I made sure that our small library had a copy on the shelves.  When People Magazine published a small article on Laura in their October issue I bought multiple issues that I still have today.  Little did anyone know the impact that that poem would have on so many people from around the world.  Especially considering that it was published 49 years ago long before the internet and social media.  Upon her death in 2007, I can honestly say that Laura had no earthly idea the impact that her poetry had on people lives.  Fame or fortune were of no interest or value to her.  She was a remarkable woman that tried to live a very unremarkable life.  She had a gentle spirit, a quiet nature, she cared or people deeply and she loved without boundaries.  Laura died peacefully in her own house, on her own terms, surrounded by close family and friends.  And as she stares into the Heavens at night, there are twice as many stars as usual.