Tally

 

It is the time when people do retrospectives of the past year. Famous people who died, accomplishments, etc. 

It was an insane year with the virus, insurrections, many weather crisis. I lost many people I liked and too many I loved. Yet despite it all, it was a good year because of the many small things as simple as flowers outside our front door and having people I like and love around me.

I'm a wordsmith. I live and breath writing. This year I read:

• 37271 pages including fiction, ,nonfiction, detective, history, politics, bios, etc) 
• Newspapers on line usually Washington Post, New York Times, Le Monde, Tribune de Geneve, Guardian etc.
• News websites
• Almost every article in the New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly

 

As a writer:

• I finished writing Lexington
• I started Twins
• I'm in the process of putting my short stories and poems into an anthology. Working title, The Corporate Virgin after one of the stories, a prize winner.
  

Also wrote over several hundred blogs. See the list of the right.

In between led a full life with friends and family. Highlights:

• Being with my husband
• Seeing my daughter after two years
• Ate some incredible food
• Walked the beach with a dog doing zoomies
• Saw a square sunrise
• Saw friends, many socially distanced, but still saw them, talked to them
• Was vaccinated three times and have my code 
• Lived with joy most day
  

 

 

SOUNDS

 

SHE COLLECTED SOUNDS: not ordinary sounds like rain on a roof, but exotic sounds that most people wouldn’t notice like the puff of a breaking pimple.

Each sound had a code. She kept records in notebooks, hundreds of notebooks. They were all the same, black and white marbling and printed label that said: “This notebook belongs to_______” On each of them she had printed Heather Davis and the dates that she had started and finished. They were filed in chronological order on the bookshelves of her rented room. Each page’s entries were aligned, each letter, each number the same size.

She’d started her collection at 18 with ordinary sounds, a singing bird, the dishwasher filling. It wasn’t too long before her parents died. They had gone to their graves convinced that she’d never be able to care for herself. Heather had proven them wrong.

She thought that she had a wonderful job delivering mail at a bank, a few blocks from her room. It was more than a job; it was one of her careers. The creak of the left wheel on the cart that she used to carry the white external and brown internal envelopes was recorded in her 87^th notebook. Her left made a 6E yellow, but the right was 7E-Yellow.

Her favorite stop was the Mortgage Department. Alan, the manager, always smiled and thanked her when she placed the mail in his in-box. She thought she might be in love with him, but she knew he had a girlfriend. He kept her picture on his desk. The same blond lady sometimes stopped at the bank to borrow the keys to his car, a red two-seater.

That car was the kind that made people turn their heads when he drove by. The sound of the engine turning over was coded as 17J-Green. She rushed out one night to listen as Alan was leaving. She stood behind a large rock and first heard a key click 9P-Purple, followed by a rev 17Q-Teal. The engine hum was a 2J-Aqua.

The same night when she entered her daily sounds, she pretended she was riding in his car, a multi-colored scarf held in her hand blowing out the window like she’d seen the blond lady do.

Heather was tired. There had had three mail deliveries to sort instead of the usual two. Many brown envelopes needed to be transported for signatures. She was late delivering the CEO’s mail. His secretary had frowned at her.

Ten minutes before she was due to leave, the heavens opened. Lightning. Thunder. She didn’t chronicle those sounds any more.

She started her three-block trot home.

“Heather?”

She turned. Alan held his car door open. Should she get in? Wet his upholstery?

“Hurry! You’re drenched. You’ll catch cold.”

She didn’t need a second invitation. The interior was more beautiful than she imagined. The dashboard was polished wood. The seats were butter-soft beige leather. Her hand stroking it made a 22N-Lilac. She wasn’t sure of the hue because of the engine’s noise.

“Do you live far?”

“Oak Street. “

The traffic was so heavy the car sat immobile, imprisoned in traffic. She didn’t care. She was next to him. She could pretend she was the blond lady. Too bad she couldn’t hold her scarf out the window, but it would get wet.

The light changed. Alan could only move three-car lengths before the signal turned red. Still, all too soon they pulled up in front of her rooming house.

“Do you want to come in? I’ve new Girl Scout cookies. Chocolate mint.” If he said yes, she could show him her notebooks. He would be the first person to see them. She suspected he never thought she had any interests besides her banking career.

Those notebooks were her legacy to humanity, a complete encyclopedia of noise, but she couldn’t say, “Do you want to see my legacy to humanity.”

“I’d love to, but I’m already late. Daphne will kill me.” Then he looked at her face. “If you have any left, perhaps you can bring them to work tomorrow for coffee break.”

“Oh, yes.” Heather jumped from the car, forgetting to thank him for the ride.

After she dried off, she took her notebook and her multi-colored felt tipped to write down the day’s sounds. Maybe when she was famous for categorizing the most sounds, Alan might even forget Daphne. Tomorrow she would show him a notebook.

On the way to work the next day she stopped to buy napkins with yellow roses. Although she saw a yellow candle, she thought it would be too much for a coffee break.

At 9:55 she ran upstairs to his office with the cookies and napkins. Because he was with a client, she waited.

When he came out the door, he shook the man’s hand.

“Heather?” He sounded surprised.

“I brought the cookies.” She held up the bag. “And pretty napkins.”

He looked confused and then glanced at his watch. “OK. We’ve time before my next appointment. I’ll get my secretary to bring us some coffee.”

Heather wanted to dance. “I’d rather have milk.” She arranged three napkins: one for him, one for her and one in the middle where she placed the cookies in a circle.

Never had cookies tasted so good. Within two days she’d ridden in his car, and they were now eating together. Maybe he would forget Daphne.

A knock on the door (9K-Brown) wasn’t worth entering. She had knocks on wood, glass and metal. She tried to think of ways to show him the sound notebook she’d stuffed in the bag with the cookies and napkins.

Daphne opened the door. “Hello Darling. I was downtown and wondered if you were free … Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know …”

He stood up and introduced them. Heather’s mouth was stuffed with cookies. She shouldn’t talk with her mouth full.

“Alan has told me about you.” Daphne held out her hand.

Heather felt warm inside. He cared enough to mention her to others. She took Daphne’s hand, even if her fingers had chocolate on them. Daphne reached for a napkin.

Heather reached for the napkin at the same time upsetting her milk over Alan’s papers. The sound of the glass hitting the desk was a 14Z-Black.

“Oh, how clumsy,” Daphne said.

“It’s all right Heather.” Alan grabbed several napkins to mop up the milk. “Look. Nothing’s run.”

“Your papers. They’ll smell sour,” Daphne said.

“I’ll print new ones. “If you had to spill milk, that was the best place, Heather.”

Heather knew she was blushing as she backed out of the room. In the ladies room she washed the tears from her face.

Her supervisor came looking for her. “Anything wrong?”

Heather shook her head.

“You’d better get back to work.”

Heather never wanted to go back to the Mortgage Department, but her notebook was still there. It was too valuable to abandon.

She put the interoffice envelopes in Paul Graves’s basket. As she passed Alan’s secretary’s desk, she overheard her talking to Daphne. “He really shouldn’t encourage her.” The milk-stained papers were in the trash.

“Alan always takes in strays,” Daphne said. Even his dog was a stray found along the road. At least he won’t bring her home.” They both looked up and saw her.

Am I a stray, Heather wondered? No, I have a home.

Alan opened his door. The notebook was in his hand. “I’m glad you came back. You forgot this.” He handed it to her.

His big smile didn’t melt her this time. He was only being nice to her because he felt sorry for her, she thought. He had no right.

She was as good as he was.

Better maybe.

She had two careers: he had only one. She hugged the notebook to her chest. Nothing mattered. She had her life’s work. When she was famous, she would show them all.

Sarah Weddington 1945-2021

 

How many women as well as babies would have died if Sarah Weddington had never been born? Weddington was out front in the Roe v. Wade case: Linda Coffee in the background. Weddington was one of two lawyers who won Roe v. Wade, taking abortion from the back alleys to safe places. The court case gave women back control of their wombs.

 

Sarah Ragle Weddington was born 5 February 1945 in Abilene, Texas to a Methodist minister, Rev. Herbert Doyle Ragel, and Lena Catherine. 

 

Because her father was transferred about every four years, she regularly changed communities and schools. For some children this would have been destabilizing, but Weddington thrived and ended up developing leadership qualities that were ahead of her time. Some of her accomplishments and activities included:

•       Church choir singer

•       Band

•       Drum major

•       President of the Methodist Youth Fellowship

 

She earned a B.A. in English from McMurry University before studying law at the University of Texas, one of 40 women out of a student body of 1,600. Being told it would be tough as a woman, she became even more determined to finish. 

 

Weddington knew firsthand what a woman went through if she wanted/needed an abortion when she discovered she was pregnant without wanting to be. It was in her third year of law school in 1967. Because her life was not in danger from the pregnancy, she had no hope of a legal abortion. Her solution was to go to Piedras Negras, Mexico where she was met by a man with a white shirt and brown pants. Because she worked three jobs, she could afford the procedure.

Weddington was lucky. The clinic was clean. 

Weddington later told the New York Times that when she came to after the procedure she thought, “I pray that no one ever finds out about this.” Many years passed before she chose to reveal it.

 

The father was Ron Weddington, whom she married the next year. They divorced in 1974.

 

Like many new graduates, finding work was difficult. A group of graduate students from her university were working on how to challenge the abortion laws.

 

Norma McCorvey was introduced to Weddington by Linda Coffee, the other lawyer in the case. 

 

McCovey was not a sweet woman caught in a trap by unfortunate circumstances; she would never make an ideal poster child. This was not her first pregnancy; another child had been adopted by her mother. Over the years McCorvey would change from being pro-choice to pro-life—from being pro-Weddington to anti-Weddington.McCorvey was the Jane Roe in the Roe v. Wade. 

 

Wade was Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade, who had been nicknamed “The Chief” by the Dallas Bar. He gained more national attention after the release of the film The Thin Blue Line about the conviction of Randall Dale Adams for killing Police Officer Robert Wood. Although sentenced to death, Adams was exonerated in 1988. Some 15 people who were sentenced under Wade’s watch were later found innocent thanks to DNA testing. 

 

This was the case for which Weddington and Coffee had been waiting. Preparation included working with doctors who had seen far too many women suffer and/or die in the many hospital obstetrics infection wards maintained for the women who had complications from illegal or self-induced abortions.

 

Coffee and Weddington first presented the case in district court in Dallas in May 1970.

Ward helped them without wanting to when he said, “I don’t care what any court says; I am going to continue to prosecute doctors who carry out abortion.” Procedural rules stated if local elected officials continue to prosecute after a federal court ruling of unconstitutionality, there is a right to appeal to the Supreme Court.

 

Coffee appealed to the Supreme Court, and on 3 May 1970 they agreed to hear the case.

For many reasons the team decided that Weddington would be the presenter. She preferred the spotlight. Coffee sat and watched. 

 

Weddington had done very little legal work when she went before the highest court in the country. She based her major arguments on the 14th amendment (See Appendix A) and another Supreme Court ruling, the Griswold v. Connecticut decision, which allowed the sale of contraceptives based on the right of privacy. 

 

Right before the hearing started, Weddington said she had a flashback to her own abortion. No woman, she felt, should have to go through that even though she did not die and was not physically permanently damaged. 

 

As the hearing began she said she was very nervous, but once she stood, she said that she felt herself grow calm. 

 

Her opening remarks stated, “We are not here to advocate abortion. We do not ask the court to rule that abortion is good or desirable in any particular situation. We are here to advocate that the decision whether or not a particular woman will continue to carry or will terminate a pregnancy is a decision that is made by that individual. That in fact she has a constitutional right to make that decision for herself.” 

 

She claims that she was “conscious the fate of many women for many years would be resting on my performance.” 

 

When the judgement came down 22 January 1973 only Weddington was mentioned in the news reports. She was content in the result but not the attention. 

 

They’d won with a 7-2 majority. Weddington had to wait for the ruling to be airmailed to her in those pre-fax, pre-email days before she could read the opinions. She was 26 and remains one of the youngest lawyers to ever go before the Supreme Court successfully. 

 

Weddington went on to a distinguished career including:

•       Three terms in the Texas House of Representatives

•       First female General Counsel in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1977

•       Assistant to President Jimmy Carter, 1978-1981

•       Lecturer at Texas Female University, 1981-1990

•       Founder of the Weddington Center

•       Speaker and adjunct professor at the University of Texas Austin

 

Weddington wonders why the debate continues, not just about abortion but contraception as well. She knows many of the people who persist are religious but decries that one person’s religion should control the life of a person who is not of that belief system. 

 

It is not just the right for a woman to have an abortion that she supports. Weddington  talked about Planned Parenthood: “The federal government has never given money to Planned Parenthood for abortion. It gives money to it for the provision of contraception and well-woman care: for the treatment of venereal disease, mammograms, and so on. The anti-abortionists recognize that the money is not used for abortion, but they want it cut off anyway. It is a real threat. But Planned Parenthood may ultimately benefit from what Trump is doing and saying. Last week, I was in Houston for a Planned Parenthood event. Usually, there would be about 1,000 people in the audience. This time, we had 2,500. People are very worried, and they are giving more generously.” 

 

Weddington says she thinks when they write her obituary that it will feature her Roe v. Wade victory. Depending on who writes it she will be either considered a heroine for saving the lives of perhaps millions of women or an evil person responsible for the deaths of millions of babies.

Works by Sarah Weddington

•       A Question of Choice, Smithmark Publishers, 1993

•       The United States Delegation to the United Nations Mid-Decade Conference for Women, Copenhagen, 1980

•       The legal status of homemakers in Texas, 1997

•       “Getting the Right to Choose,” Time, 31 March 2003 

Works with Sarah Weddington as a Contributing Author

•       Guide to resources, 1980

•       Honoring a commitment to the people of America: the record of President Jimmy Carter on issues, 1980

•       Roe v. Wade: proceedings of arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, 1970s

•       Barbara Vackar papers, 1972–1979

•       Hermine Tobolowsky collection, 1957–1983

•       Texas women in politics, 1977

 

This is from Coat Hangers and Knitting Needles. I make no money on the book. If you want a copy please notify me.