Interviewer’s Note:

Meeting Eden was like opening a great book. Her warmth and openness invited me into her story from our first moments together. She really cherishes those few important relationships in her life deeply. Eden has such a sweetness about her. During our conversations, she’d laugh at herself countless times. Eden is wonderfully receptive and willing to share even the difficult parts of her story. Eden’s love of reading is perfectly aligned with her personality: thoughtful, comforting, and appreciative of the finer beauty in life.

Gratitude

Looking back on my life, I can say I’ve been very lucky. I’m grateful that I had wonderful parents. I’m also grateful that I was able to go to college and graduate and go to University of Delaware to get my master’s degree.

Thinking about what people need to hear, I think people need to learn to be patient with other people in any given situation. It just came to me, something that I believe.

Looking back, it’s been an accumulation of moments rather than a single moment that made me who I am. I’ve had a pretty happy life.

My Early Life and Family Bonds

I remember when I was six and we were going to visit my mother’s sister by bus. My mother was especially happy that day because she was going to find out for sure then we could buy the house across the street from her sister and move there. My mom and her sister had a unique bond because they never lived together after our grandfather accidentally shot his wife, my grandmother Carrie. My mother was nine, her brother was six, and my aunt was two. The children were then parceled out to Carrie’s siblings. My mother was fostered off to Aggie, and my uncle to his Aunt Grace, and I don’t know who took my aunt.

So, when we finally moved across the street from my mother’s sister, it was something special. If you have something that’s taken away from you, and then you have a chance to get it back, you’re thrilled. We lived across the street for almost six years.

My mother named me Eden after her. All the eldest girls in each family were named Eden. There were four of us at one time.

The Blessing of a Dad

When I was in sixth grade, in November, my mother got a phone call. I answered it, and it turned out to be her high school sweetheart. They talked for a while, and he asked if he could take her out for dinner, and she said yes. Somehow it was arranged that he was going to take me too. So, the three of us went out to a nice restaurant. I loved him instantly, and I think he was still in love with my mother, and she was in love with him for sure.

Six months later, they got married, and he became the ideal stepfather. I couldn’t have loved him more, and I know he loved me too. He had a daughter by his first wife who had died.

He was wonderful. He was perfect in every way. My stepfather was very fastidious, very proper.

School Days

I always hated school. I especially hated my first year of first grade. I just hated all the kids and hated being there and everything else. But when the new school opened, and my mother’s sister took me up to register, I liked the new teacher, and I liked the new school. Maybe because everybody was kind of new to the new school. I loved my third-grade teacher and my fifth-grade teacher, and especially my sixth-grade teacher. He was wonderful, played the accordion, and even recorded me singing “Red River Valley.” My sixth-grade classmates were completely unpretentious and just really neat people.

I was kind of glad that I didn’t let them force me into taking Latin. I didn’t like the woman who taught Latin and I didn’t want to take Latin. I wanted to take Spanish and French, and I loved the sound of the words. And they were easy to learn.

College and Passions

College was a whole different thing. In college, you could chew gum in class, blow bubbles, you could cut class and nobody cared. I loved most of my classes. I think I started to major in English and then I switched to biology and then I switched back and ended up in English. I was fascinated by biology and was really good at it, but I ended up sticking with English. I always liked to read. That was my favorite thing to do. I’d read whatever I could lay my hands on that I thought I might enjoy. Reading is relaxing. I don’t have to listen to people talking. My favorite author is Ursula Le Guin. You have to read her book, The Left Hand of Darkness. It’s wonderful.

Career Paths and Teaching

After college, I got a graduate assistantship at the University of Delaware. Then I worked as a copy editor for a publishing company, but I hated that job, it was just boring. After that, I got a job working for another university, but it didn’t pay as much as promised.

In 1978, while teaching at a university in the area, I created a course: 20th-century dystopic fiction, which my students loved. I loved teaching it. I taught it for 32 Januaries. That was my favorite class ever.

The Gift of Love: My Husband

I met my husband, when I was working at a drugstore in a neighborhood in Baltimore. He lived right across the street and came in all the time. I sold him cigars and ice cream. He was a great movie buff and always told me what he’d seen. I ended up marrying him many years later.

We shared the same interests. We were both readers, and we were both interested in foreign languages. In fact, he taught French and Spanish. We got married in 1972 and were married for 49 years until he died. At 91, he got COVID. It was horrible losing him. For years afterward, I would turn my head to say something to him, and he wasn’t there. We were a perfect, perfect match.

I have written down four pages of great things we did together. For example, going to our home at the beach every summer. He used to go up to postcard shows with me. We both loved going to New York. He was a wonderful man.

When the movie Fantasia came out, I went to it with my husband, and I said, “Mom would love this.” And he said, “Well, you have to work tomorrow night, and I don’t have to do anything tomorrow. Why don’t I take your mom to see the movie?” That’s the kind of guy he was. And she loved it; she really loved it.

Reflections and Lessons

One of the happiest times in my life was sixth grade. I absolutely loved my teacher.

As for the most important roles I’ve played in life, well, as a kid, I was pretty happy. Especially when I was out of school for months and just played in the creek. It’s funny, I hated school, but my favorite role was kind of as a student, when I had good classmates and teachers.

I feel most proud of getting my master’s degree. It was just another accomplishment, something not many people had. I was also proud of helping my parents around the house.

I think the greatest lesson I learned is to do the best you can. I was really happy when my mom married my dad. That was a whirlwind courtship, but he was a wonderful guy, and she was so in love with him. It changed my life completely. I was really lucky to have him as a dad.

Be a good friend. Cherish the ones that you have because you don’t have an opportunity to make friends that often in life, especially as you get older. For those who have siblings, really cherish it. I used to fantasize about having a sibling.

I don’t have that much future left. But for the planet after I’m gone, well, I wish we could come together again. If I could change something right now, I’d start with bringing back to life all the people who got killed in the earthquakes in Myanmar and Thailand. It’s horrible that they all died. Then, I’d eliminate starvation.

Lastly, my wish for you is that I hope you’ll find yourself to be as lucky as I am. Thank you for reading my story.

 

With love, Eden Delcher