At what point does an object become a character, a featured player in a story? I wondered about that the other day when a reader of “Surviving Sue” chuckled about how much she connected with the descriptions of “Sue’s big purse” or “Sue’s behemoth of a satchel” in the book. Yep, my mom’s favorite accessory was her bag du jour. She had an assortment of oversized satchel-style bags. Always with a zip top and a multitude of compartments. All the better, you see, to stow away “found objects” …even at the beach and on vacation. In the pic above, Sue is on the left and my sister Lisa’s on the right – with one of Sue’s big bags in her lap. I think they were in Mexico and goodness only knows what was in the satchel-as-a-beach-bag.
Sue’s sticky-fingered behavior began long before her diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Sue was a master of justifying take-home mementos…from stores, friends’ homes, restaurants…and yes. Even a museum once. I share a few nutty tales about Sue’s over-the-top behavior in the book but reserved her episodes of kleptomania-like quirks for an entirely separate writing effort (which may or may not ever come to fruition…I’m still mulling).
Sue’s fave accomplice was her purse. Toward the end of her life, she decided to keep a few sizeable totes and donate the rest, which seemed like a terrific accomplishment until I noted that the bags in the ‘discard’ pile were riddled with food stains and smelled like dumpsters. She’d tried to put some Renuzit doodads in a couple of them, but it did little to cloak the twisted combo of decayed food and flowers.
Chatting with my new friend and reader, she commented about HER mom’s behavior of stashing items in her purse. Little bits of semi-harmless thievery borne (she thought) from confusion, but she’s beginning to think it’s an attention-getting behavior. Her mother’s most recent episode included boldly depositing a block of parmesan cheese into her purse, right in front of the grocery store employee who was stocking the cheese case. Confusion or performance? She’s not sure but her mom smiled the whole time, enjoying the attention from the young (and she added quite handsome) employee. Sue reincarnated? We had a good giggle and decided that having a friend to laugh with doesn’t alleviate the drama, but gosh, it takes the edge off.
The image of the bag I snipped in above? No – it’s not Sue’s actual Dooney & Bourke bag but it’s nearly identical to her infamous satchel. Add a few pen marks toward the top and a coffee stain in the lower right corner and it’s hers, through and through.
Last night I was curious and did a search in the “Surviving Sue” manuscript, wondering how many times I’d mentioned the words ‘satchel’ or ‘purse’ in Sue’s story, and I was amazed. If Word is right (and who am I to be a doubter?) the words appear six and ten times, respectively. That’s more airtime that some of the humans in Sue’s story, so I think I’ve answered my own question. An object can be character-worthy…and story-worthy, too.
Vicki 😉
Victoria Ponders 
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