Dearheart: Poems From a Loving Friend

By Mayo Hindle

From the deep South, a woman in her 90s pens poetry in a nursing home. Her deeply spiritual, love-centered, and humor-tinged verses contain pearls of wisdom. Mayo is a witness that we can contribute at whatever age and in whatever place. A letter from her son, Will Hindle, an experimental filmmaker, concludes this book. It is evident from the persons who knew Mayo and from her poetry that she was a loving person who was loved. We invite you to read this homespun, unexpected treasure of poems.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AllrOneofUs Publishing
• Release date: Oct 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393320197

Mayo Hindle

Mayo Hindle, who resided in Alabama, wrote most of her poetry in her 90's. She was beloved by many people, including those in Summerford, a Nursing Home, where she lived her final years. She was especially beloved by her son, a well-known experimental film maker, Will Hindle. These poems are a testament to Mayo's wisdom, creativty, and beauty as a person.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

MAYO HINDLE, BORN IN the 19th century, wrote most of these poems in her mid-nineties, and went on to live to 103. She resided in a nursing home in the deep South, having outlived her son, who died near the time that many of these poems were written. Will Hindle was a well-known independent filmmaker, who won many awards with films such as Chinese Fire Drill and Watersmith. I had the good fortune of attending a week-long, film making workshop and came to know Will and his work. I did not meet his mother, however, who ended up in a nursing home in Falkville, Alabama. There, a friend of mine, Brother Jude, would visit her regularly.

One day, many years ago, Jude gave me this manuscript, thinking I might be able to do something with it. At the time, her poems seemed remote from the work I had done,  publishing oral histories of persons who had been homeless or in psychiatric hospitals. But I recently chanced across the manuscript again and thought it was time to honor this woman.

Mayo, who I came to know as I edited this volume, is a testament to being a loving person and one who received love. Her writing is homespun, deceptively simple and tinged with humor. Her voice is the wisdom of age speaking to us, one who has been through much, and who conveys sayings that can serve as a valuable guide to life. As an expert in aging, she can advise how to keep the spirit of youth, that as we come to look more like a prune, to be like a peach inside. In one of her poems, which speaks to me and is titled Wouldn’t it be Wonderful, she offers a worldview that looks for the good in things.

Wouldn’t life be worth living

If we praise the good we see?

Spirituality informed her life, and her faith was true and simple, one that graced her life and made her a more loving person. At least that is the testament of Brother Jude who wrote when I announced my intention to publish her work: She was a true child of God in my estimation.

Mayo’s life was a testament to how beauty, creativity, and love can be present at all times in our life, even our twilight years. It’s also a testament that this beauty can be present no matter where we are, even a nursing home. Somehow love and the spirit mesh together, emblematic in her son’s creative journey in the world, and his heartfelt love that is expressed in his letter published here as the Afterword.

Last, I mention Dearheart, which became the title for this work. As I was editing Mayo’s work, I, at first, thought it was a mistake. The manuscript was printed by an old portable typewriter and had such errors present. But the newly coined word repeated, and it appeared to be a reference to a special friend of Mayo. We may not think of Nursing Homes as being a place where a rich love could be present. But Mayo tells us so, where her love for many of the patients and staff at Summerford abounded, as with her friend, Dearheart.

So, as I conclude this, I have come to see that Mayo was one of God’s unknown Saints, and I have had the honor of sharing this work.

Michael A. Susko, Editor