I have always looked upon myself as a very ordinary person. I lived my life according to the rules I was taught. I was a properly obedient child, a properly obedient daughter, a properly obedient wife, and a properly attentive, loving mother to my children. I willingly gave and seldom, if ever, asked for - - or expected - - anything in return. There is certainly nothing there to indicate anything strange, unusual, or different, is there? Just a perfectly ordinary person living a perfectly ordinary life.

I like kittens, fuzzy slippers, home-made fudge, and rye bread toast and tea on a rainy afternoon. Police cars don't make me nervous and I find cold days ever so much nicer than hot ones.

I am much more interested in what people are rather than who they are, and children between the early talking age and the time they begin to keep secrets fascinate me. After that, talking to them is something like playing a game of hide-and-seek. Because they are younger and make up the rules as they go along, they always manage to elude me. Then, after a span of years, they seem to turn into interesting people, and we can once more interact on a mutually pleasurable level.

I have never been able to understand selfish people, . . . . .

Excerpt from "All about Eve and Other Things"