Dear Mad'm (1982)

Dear Mad'm is the autobiographical story of Stella Walthall Patterson of her experience living alone, after age 80, with her dog Vicki on her mining claim on the Klamath River in the Siskiyou Mountains, near Happy Camp, California. She had until then lived a comfortable life in San Francisco, as a teacher, writer, and artist, but when her doctor told her she had "young legs" and good health, she vowed to spend one full year on her remote mining claim for solitude to write. Instead, she met interesting and endearing small-town characters and faced the challenges of rustic living-the story she tells humorously in Dear Mad'm. Her daily world, her zestful manner, her jaunty humor, and her fresh and original observations are detailed here with clarity and directness. Not surprisingly, at the end of her year, on her 81st birthday, she decided to continue this good life close to the soil, where she found that the people she needed also needed her.