When I listen to audiobooks, I need to like the narrator’s voice. In preparation for an upcoming drive to the Fraternity and Sorority Archivist Conference, I tested out the first disc of Glitter and Glue written and read by Kelly Corrigan.
Instead of listening to a snippet, I went through the first disc on Friday night and began listening again on Saturday morning. I listened and listened until there were no more discs to cue up. In the narrative, I heard mention of Lambda Chi (“Lambda Chi on a Friday night,” perhaps) and the University of Richmond. The University of Richmond always leads me to think of May Lansfield Keller, the “Iron Dean” of Westhampton College. Westhampton was the coordinate to the all-male University of Richmond (which enrolled a few women before Westhampton was created which is more information than you ever wanted to know). I asked myself when Richmond allowed sororities, because I remember several NPC groups colonized at about the same time. One of the chapters was the Virginia Eta chapter of Pi Beta Phi and the pledging ceremony took place in Keller Hall, which is not the same as May Keller’s former residence, the Deanery. Keller, in addition to being the first Dean of Westhampton, was Grand President of Pi Beta Phi from 1908-18, an important decade in Pi Phi’s history. That is how my brain works; after that thought process I began to figure out the author’s age and whether she would have been at Richmond before or after the NPC groups came to campus.
I did what I tend to do. I googled. Up popped an announcement that Kelly Corrigan was to be a featured speaker at the 2014 Grand Convention of Kappa Alpha Theta. Then it came back to me. This was the author and book that Noraleen Young, Theta’s archivist, suggested to me at the 2014 Fraternity and Sorority Archivist’s Conference. That post on Theta’s website told me what I wanted to know. Corrigan was a member of the charter class of Theta’s Epsilon Psi Chapter when it was installed at the University of Richmond in 1987.
While it took me two years to get to the book, I needed its message now. The voice in Corrigan’s head belongs to her mother Mary; I love how Corrigan recreated the voice as she read the book. The voice in my head also belongs to a woman named Mary, however, I haven’t heard her real voice since 2001.
I remember 2001, that year of death and dying. On one of my calls home from Florida, where each day involved a trip to the hospital, doctors, and health-care professionals, my daughter told me that she passed her driving test. Proudly, she said she could ferry her brothers around in addition to getting herself where she needed to be, using my car. The thought that flashed through my head was “OH NO!!” I was in the midst of letting go with both hands. My mother was dying and my daughter was flying the coop. Parenting is the hardest, most infuriating, most difficult, and yet, oddly, the most rewarding job there is. At least that is how I see it. And as we became the last one in the line, it’s the people we love the most who live on in our life, in our heart, and in our head. It is a simple, yet profound message. Is my voice in the heads of my sons and daughter?
Now on to find another of Kelly Corrigan’s books to listen to on my drive. This time I will not start listening until I start the car and head north through the corn canyon.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
