On Sunday, we took the 80-minute drive to Portland to watch Papermaker, a play by Monica Wood. A long-time friend of mine, Monnie (as she's called in the family) has been a dedicated writer of books and articles for many-many years. Her most recent book, a memoir titled When We Were the Kennedys, shares the story of when her mill worker father died on the way to work and how, like President John Kennedy's family, the Wood family persevered. It's a stunning book...
And the Papermaker proved to be a stunning play. The story revolves around a paper mill strike in Abbott Falls, Maine, a veiled Rumford/Mexico. The main characters are a mill worker and his cancer-stricken wife and the mill owner and his daughter. In the audience were generations of folks from the River Valley (the Rumford/Mexico region), including my soccer goalkeeper from the early 1980's and his family; Bailey's caretaker and her mill-worker husband; former high school classmates; friends... we were all swept away by the story because, on various levels, we have lived this story. The play helped the boys see the lives of blue collar workers more fully; many of their friends' parents work in the mill. Papermaker transported me back to the 1960s when my dad was out on strike and my own mother battled the cancer that eventually took her life.
I hope this play and our time together will be a special memory for the boys as they think back on their exchange in America.
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