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How the gift of a typewriter gave me the keys to the kingdom

May 4, 2024

May has been very attentive to my need to live in Camelot for my entire birthday month. By Camelot, I mostly mean the musical which features my favorite “It’s May, it’s May that gorgeous holiday” song … but also the King Arthur reference to a utopia on earth. Romantic and magical with a door wide open to possibility, that is my May,

When my mother surprised me with a portable Remington typewriter on my 16th birthday, it was like a horse-drawn carriage delivering gold into the arms of this young writer. Not only had she noticed and nourished my love of writing, she propped open the door to possibility and I walked through it.

I named the typewriter Maggie, because she looked like a Maggie I would explain many times to friends. They would nod a polite, “I see,” though I knew they did not. Nor did they understand my reverence for a writing machine while they sported sweet 16 hearts on gold chains clasped around their necks.

Only later would they understand.

Now that my muse is the centerpiece of my website I sometimes hear from old friends, “Oh my, is that Maggie?”

Maggie was with me the May that I retreated to Montreal to mend a broken heart. I rented a small room across the road from a beautiful park. In the afternoons I would buy chips and vinegar from a vendor, whose truck played accordion music, and join children playing on the swings. “It’s May. It’s May, that gorgeous holiday.” I would swing and sing.

Later, I would walk back across the colorful flower-trimmed road and write poetry. In a serendipity circumstance, this led to an entire summer of studying with esteemed Canadian poet Irving Layton and reading some of my work on the BBC.

Magical May. It never let me down.

Not unexpectedly, the month really shined when it came to romance. On the day that George and I were married in a friend’s rose garden, a predicted May Gray exercised its right to change course and exploded into sunshine. Great gobs of glorious sunshine.

With such a good track record, how could I not love this month that meanders into summer at its own pace? I’ve been dancing on the fringes of the merry month for a couple of months, careful to let it unfold without my direction. Now that my special guest has arrived I’m ready to swing in the sunshine and let it play out.

Have at it, May.

Email [email protected]. Follow her on X @patriciabunin and patriciabunin.com.

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