Remembering Mim

It's always cracked me up, how so many people that I am the outgoing Lockhart lassie, while Mim was shy & retiring.  HA!  Mim was always the more adventurous, while I was the stay at home.

Mim started racking up her list of accomplishments back in her very early teens, when she coached her own kid football team, Mim's Monsters.  Soon after, she started the Explorer's Club, first recruiting myself (around 6) & our brother, Ian (around 10), then the neighborhood kids.  We had weekly meetings & did all sorts of cool things.  

For her 8th grade graduation present, Dad made her a large permanent tent structure & she put on  3-night summer camps in our back yard - no one was allowed to go home without her permission or you were given the boot.  

It was during this time - when the club & camp had both boys & girls (ah, sweet innocent days) - that we marched in the July 4th parade as the Bryn Athyn Hill William Band, gleefully drowning out the BA Orchestra which was on a truck in front of us.  When she started working with Lach Pitcairn's children, the club went girls-only.  We marched in another July 4th parade as the March of Dimes, carrying with HUGE dime sandwich boards. Mim put on incredible Christmas bazaars.  It was a blast.  

It all stopped when the ladies of the town asked Mim to disband the club because they wanted to start a girl's club that everyone could join (her membership was limited) - she disbanded & nothing came of the big plans.

In high school, Mim was a star athlete.  Mike & Peter took great pride in watching her play softball - the other team always went deep into their outfield when she came up to bat.  She was elected co-editor of the school newspaper & served on Factores (student government).

In her early twenties, Mim auditioned for & was accepted into the prestigious Circle In The Square summer theater workshop, living for much of the summer of 1966 in New York's Greenwich Village.  She was later accepted to attend the even more prestigious Pasadena Playhouse, which unfortunately just before she was to start.  Literally - she arrived in California to find the school shuttered;  the good news was that out of that disappointment came her friendship with GE & Marcelite Kline & their children, Louisa  & Tom.

Mim would attend Berry College, a "mountain" college in NW Georgia; the University of Houston; and the University of Pennsylvania.  She finally received her Bachelor's from New York University, where she was part of a pioneering program for non-traditional students - a night school program, with classes three nights a week the first year, two the second, and as needed the third & final - commuting from Philadelphia!  Due to a grading glitch, she got to attend the outdoor graduation ceremony in Washington Square twice - the first time, she was totally conventional, but had fun the second time, festooning her mortar board with all sorts of silly pins, including "I is a brane."  

Following her NYU graduation, Mim served as a never-to-be-forgotten houseparent to first graders attending Philadelphia's Girard College (k-12).  She then went on to get her MSW from Rutgers.

Mim was remarkably well-traveled.  Following in her older brothers' footsteps, she spent her 15th summer on our uncle's Central Valley ranch, outside Sacramento, California.  She worked as a ranch hand & loved getting to know Aunt Betty & Uncle Paul, David, Linda & Bob.  Attending a church camp at the ranch was a defining experience for her.  In her twenties, she spent almost a month traveling the Hawaiian islands, falling hard for the Big Island.  In her thirties, she spent almost a month exploring another island  - Ireland.  

Attending the Laurel church camp was another defining moment for Mim.  She also loved attending the Sunrise camp, just outside New Hope.  I love people but steer clear of group events;  Mim seemed shy around people, but gravitated toward them.  

In her forties, Mim was recognized by the New Jersey State Assembly with a very fancy proclamation honoring her work with autistic children. 

Mim never seemed to accept that others admired her.  Even in her final days, she would talk about how people didn't care about her, how she barely registered on their radar & how little she would be missed.  Looking back over her astonishing accomplishments, it grieves my heart she couldn't see  to see any of it.   I don't know what happened in her life to give Mim such a harsh view of herself, but there was no shaking her from it.  She was forever suspect of me, because I insisted on trying.  Mim had a dark side that could be hurtful, even cruel, but it was - I always believed - due to whatever happened to her early in life.  

My sister was exceptional in many ways, on many levels.  I'd love to hear memories from the many people she touched throughout her amazing life.  Am taking the next few weeks to revel in memories of Mim.  What are yours?