Roger Clark started his message to me in the way that so many people do: “I sure do miss Smiley…”
Clark is not alone in missing the legend Smiley Anders and his 50 years of writing for the newspaper.
I think of Smiley often and still have his pile of pencils on my desk. They remind me of his humor, kindness and mischievous nature.
Since he couldn’t tell Smiley, Clark decided to share the latest story about his granddaughter Frances with me — and I’m glad he did.
“Frances is my 7-year-old granddaughter, and she is blessed with an abundance of optimism and innocence,” Clark wrote. “She wrote a letter to Kate Middleton after seeing a photo of her and her children, asking the Princess what her favorite hobbies were and what games she played with her kids.”
Early last week, to Clark’s surprise, Frances called from her home in Slidell to tell him that the Princess had responded. The child was overjoyed as she read the letter to her grandparents.
She continued to explain that she had already started sewing a purse for Kate.
“Later, she zoomed us to show us the purse. It had a whale drawn on the side, and I asked her why,” Clark wrote. “She said in all seriousness, ‘Well, you know, she is the Princess of Whales.'”
The beginnings of Frances Case’s purse for Princess Catherine. Frances chose to draw a whale on the purse in honor of the princess.
Here was a girl after my heart. So, I called her mom.
”Frances is the most unique little bird I’ve ever met,” Katie Clark Case said at the top of our call. “She just loves to write letters to people.”
Case said that Frances’ technique to delay bedtime often revolves around important questions.
“Around the time that Queen Elizabeth died, she had a lot of these questions,” Case said. “She would say, ‘I need to know, like did Queen Elizabeth like pizza?'”
Frances figured out that she can write letters to the people she’s interested in — and often they write her back.
When young Frances discovered her mother’s calligraphy pen and wax seal, she wanted to send Princess Kate a letter.
“She thought Princess Kate would get a big kick out of the wax seal,” Case said. “She asked her about her hobbies and about her children — and told her a little bit about our life in Slidell.”
I told Case that Frances shared an interest with my older daughter. Around that same age, Greer became fascinated with William and Kate — enough that, on a spur-of-the-moment trip, she and I flew to London for the royal wedding.
To get a front-row spot, we camped out the night before along the procession route. It was a long, cold, oddly magical night, made memorable mostly because of a ridiculous detail: behind us stood a row of portable toilets with springs strong enough to snap a bear trap. Every time someone opened a door, it slammed shut with a bang that shook the ground and jolted us awake.
The Head of Royal Correspondence responded to Frances Case’s letter to Princess Catherine with a kind letter.
Months after we returned home, I watched an interview with Prince William. He mentioned being exhausted on his wedding day, and when the interviewer guessed it was nerves, William explained it was actually “those portable toilets outside St. James Palace — their doors kept slamming all night.”
When I told Case the story, she said, “What a funny thing to have in common with the future king of England!”
Maybe stories like Frances’ remind us the world isn’t as big or distant as we think.
A little girl in Slidell can write to a princess and get a letter back — and somehow, the future king of England and I can lose sleep to the same ridiculous row of portable potties.
Life is absurd, yes — but full of small moments that pull us closer than we expect.
Clark is right. Smiley would have gotten a kick out of this one.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com ’
