LifeStory Episode 19

"Thanks for so many nice comments. What great publicity for my books."

Elizabeth C.

"Wow, Thanks Marcia, Inspires me."

Gary S.

March 2024

This Memoir Issue is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend and wonderful author Elizabeth (Buffy) Cooke who passed away in February 2024. Her love of dogs inspired her work BAW President for many years.

Blog Host, Marcia Rosen.  www.MarciaRosen.com

BUFFY’S LAST BOOK: A LETTER

IT MATTERS

This small book is a testament to A LETTER.

A hand-written letter on notepaper or a card is precious, and it is unique. Not only does the handwriting – the formations and pressure of the words written, reflect the character and the mood of the writer, but the purpose and the promise of what the letter expresses is put down in real words and feelings.

There have been moments when one holds a letter from years ago in one’s hand that the whole panoply of something relevant in those far-off years comes alive. It almost burns. Images, relationships, love and hate, emerge from the latent page.

A letter is alive.

And therefore, so is the reader, alive once again to that moment, that love, that crisis in the mists of the past.

I am 97 years old, born in September of 1925. Sharing these letters in this little tome makes them take on an extra dimension.

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ONE OF HER GREATEST LOVES WAS PARIS:

In my almost 100 years of life, one place, one mode-of -living, one extraordinary environment - made for the deepest impression and permanent love: PARIS!

I lived there - on la rue Monsieur - for three years after WWII, but it was later, after many visits, I went yearly to a small (6 floors)

older little hotel on the avenue de la Bourbonnais. From my small balcony on the 6th floor, there was a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower. Oh, to see it by moonlight!

I was also able to see into at the windows of the richly appointed apartments across the avenue, (Talk about “Rear Window”!)

I had it from all angles. In the evenings, through the windows across the street from my perch on the balcony, I would see lavish dinner parties or a family fight in a living room, even a crime or two. And talk about love!

The view was so fascinating, I was compelled to try to depict the goings-on. I wrote seven books about the Small Hotel and its environs and my yearly sojourns there, comfortable with the antiquated wooden elevator (accommodating only one person at a time), the spiral stairs to the top, its baguette breakfasts and coffee!

The Small Hotel was owned and run by a most affable host - eager to keep his clients happy. Over the years, he put a copy of each of the seven Small Hotel books about the establishment in at the front window facing the avenue. All seven. He also placed each book on a shelf at the back of the front desk facing the lobby. He was that proud of the series. So am I.

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BOOKS BY: ELIZABETH COOKE

• Life Savors – A Memoir

• Eye of the Beholder

• A Shadow Romance

• There’s a Small Hotel - (Winner Paris Book Festival 2015 for General Fiction)

• Secrets of a Small Hotel

• The Hotel Next Door

• A Tale of Two Hotels

• Rendezvous at a Small Hotel

• Intrigue at a Small Hotel - (Grand Prize Winner Paris Book Festival 2016)

• The Hotel Marcel Dining Club – By Invitation Only How To Game People Without Even TryingStill Life – A Love Story

• THE ROSE TRILOGY

  • Violet Rose – The Encroaching Sea Starfish – The Arbitrary Ocean Violet – The Swelling Tide

• Abbi’s Forever Home

• Abbi’s Forever Home – FOR KIDS Shadow Box

• THE MIMI SERIES

  • Mimi Takes ParisMimi’s Paris DilemmaMimi – L’Étoile de Paris (The Star of Paris) Mimi Takes EuropeMimi Takes ManhattanMimi – Demoiselle d’Honneur, A Paris Wedding Paris Loves Mimi: A Perfect Sleuth

•  A Letter

I will miss you Buffy, with all my heart and soul, Marcia

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