Brenda lifted herself up in the hospital bed by the steel bars along each side.  At 92, her wrinkled Nordic face surrounded by wild white hair flying in all directions, as if the energy from her brain electrified it to reach every molecule in the room. While devouring my face with dark deep set eyes and wide smile, she said,

“Well, there you are. I was waiting for you.”

I took her frail hand in both my hands.

“I am so honored to meet you!”

“And I, you!”

Brenda raised my hands to her heart. She had pulled me home.

–Excerpted from “Burning Incandescence” by Pat Horner, a story about Pat’s encounters with writer Brenda Ueland and her work.

Visit Pat’s website here.

–Pat Horner is a painter/collage artist and writer exhibited and published in the US and abroad. Horner is the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Woodstock Artists’ Association Museum and a journalist, photographer, coach, teacher, publisher and editor at publications including the “The Woodstock Guide.” She’s currently writing fiction and memoir from Woodstock, NY.

Her website is: http://www.pathorner.com/