Sunday, April 15, 2018

15/ Barbara Hoffman

She was a legend in my school, a writing teacher spoken of so highly by so many that I envisioned her tall and elegant, dark hair in a long bob, given to wearing swirling capes and scarves. Reality was a shock: tiny, elf-like, given to wearing short tunics and striped leggings. Invited to audit several of her poetry workshops, I had so much fun. No one ever expected her to die days before retirement.

The many posts on her Legacy page tell about her uniqueness. Like this: "One of the most memorable moments was when she decided we needed to mourn the loss of the hard copy card catalog in the library as it was being transitioned over to computer only. The entire class marched into the library, encircled the card catalog and held a moment of silence . . ."

7 comments:

  1. Barbara sounds like a character in a novel. So I agree with the comments on the preceding post, suggesting that your write your biography (or "fiction").

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  2. She sounds fascinating. Such an early death is tragic.
    And I wish I'd had the option of taking writing courses at university. Though I probably wouldn't have done so anyway.

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  3. I find most truly memorable people are at least a little bit eccentric. I tried to find a picture of her but apparently there are many Barbara A. Hoffmans.

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    1. There's a picture of her in the "She was a legend" link. It's below the text.

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  4. I followed the links and read about her. She really was a legend.

    It's interesting how people envision others. I once had a school principal tell me I didn't look at all like he thought I would after exchanging several emails about PTA happenings. I said "Did you envision me tall and blonde?" He replied, "Well, yes I did."

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  5. You're not blonde? :-) Your FB profile pic looks blonde. I can't tell your height though.

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    Replies
    1. Haha, I am 5'2"(ish) and my (dyed) hair is brown with reddish undertones. I am really mostly gray. Probably.

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