In her presence

One of my former colleagues at the magazine where I once worked found and posted this picture on Instagram this morning. I'm a little blown away, seeing this again. This was taken on the afternoon that Toni Morrison lunched with the editors. Recognize anyone? At the time of this photo, I had recently given birth to my daughter, and my son was three. That may be why Toni Morrison's words on parenting, quoted in my previous post, resonated so deeply for me. Here is the tribute I wrote to her yesterday. She rocked so many worlds with her words, written and spoken, and with her laugh, low and rumbling and wise. A professor once told her son that she was the single most important writer of the Twentieth Century. What wealth she has left for us all.