Is there anything you have accomplished that you are really proud of?

I have accomplished a lot of things in my long life, nut not until I turned 70 years of age did I ever think of being proud of anything I had done. Of course probably the most important thing I have ever done was to raise my three wonderful children, and now when I think of how good they all turned out, I have good reasons to be proud of that job.

Growing up, going to grade school in a little country school house with only one teacher, the class I liked best was English where I learned in a small way to write stories. When the teacher read a chapter from Huckleberry Finn or Little Women for Opening Exercises, I imagined being someone who could write those interesting stories. Then in high school, English was again my favorite subject and where I got my best grades.

When I I reached the age of 70 and my children had all left home, I started trying to get some things published. I sent one of my needlecraft projects to a little craft magazine called The Work-basket. I had subscribed to the magazine for years and always looked at authors' names and wished I could see my projects in print along with their printed instructions. I found that anything editors wanted had to be original and I had never done that before. But I picked up my crochet hook sticking out of a ball of thread and started to crochet. A round at a time, in about an hour, I laid my doily out on the carpet. It was about 12 inches in diameter and beautiful. I decided to try my luck, so I typed up all the instructions neatly according to specifications and put them along with my starched doily in the mailbox to go to Work-basket in Kansas City.

A few days later, my phone rang.

"Hi, I am the editor of Work-basket." The voice on the phone said. "We would like to publish your little doily. How much do you want for it"

Surprised and a little timidly I answered, " I don't have any idea what you pay for such things. Would you like to make me an offer?"

She said, "We pay anywhere from $50 to $200 for doilies, depending on the design, of course, and the size of the project. We are prepared to offer you $75 for this one."

I hurriedly accepted. It only took me about an hour to make it and I had never made an hourly wage like that before.

That first little doily was the beginning of about seven years of designing and marketing my needle crafts - doilies, tablecloths, place mats, baby outfits, afghans, slippers, sweaters, caps, scarves, and many others. I sold my fancy crocheted tablecloths, some for as high as $750. Before I tuned 80 I had 270 things published in national craft magazines.

My vision deteriorated due to mauler degeneration and I finally had to give up my needle crafts, so I turned to writing. I am 87 now and have written two books, both my memoirs. Of course it makes me proud that I finally accomplished these things, but it also makes me wonder why I waited so long to start doing something worthwhile. But they say "it's never too late".

The End

Learn more about this author, Emma Willey.
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