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 February 5, 2000 |
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Islanders: Kitty Madeson by Anusha Shrivastava
At the tender age of eight, she was selling newspapers on the
steps of a subway stop in the Bronx. She never went to college
because she was "a child of the Depression." She once worked as
a model for robes and negligees. She organized art auctions and
career workshops because she wanted to "lead a pro-active life."
A chance meeting with Eleanor Roosevelt impressed her so much
that she took to public speaking for causes she deemed important.
She wrote her first poem at the age of 56 and has since published
several anthologies and novels.
Kitty Madeson, an intriguing 72-year-old Island resident, has
many tales to tell.
Kitty recounts that at the age of 50, she bumped into an
Australian sculptor at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "We
discussed art and sundry other things. Over time, he convinced
me to move to Australia and I did. Our extraordinary
relationship went on and off over a period of three years. Life
in Tasmania was very different from what I had ever known. I was
meeting artists and craftsmen and breathing the right air," she
chuckles. "On the 11th of November, 1983, a day after my
fifty-sixth birthday, I got news of the death of a very dear
friend. I wrote my first poem soon after, and then felt poetry
oozing out of me. By Christmas that year, I had penned nearly
ninety poems."
Since then, she has written more than 500 poems, some of which
have been published in anthologies titled Out of Love and
Waiting in the Wings. In Waiting in the Wings, she
writes:
Poems are like hoboes
The Out of Love collection came soon after her
relationship with the sculptor ended. She now plans a novel
about it. "I am calling it An Exchange of Gifts because
that is what the relationship really was. It could not last
because we had unrealizable expectations and other commitments
but we did show each other a different way of life and brought
out the best in each other," she says with a smile.
The romantic in her is gradually being overshadowed by the
pragmatist. Holed up in a paper-filled apartment in Eastwood,
she types into her computer every day. The book closest to
publication is a how-to manual on using one's home to gain
Medicaid eligibility. Another is a 44-page reminder on how to
take care of exposed body parts such that one can age
gracefully.
"My next project will be a book on parenting. I think the focus
of that will be time-management. Parents try to do too much and
do not enjoy their children anymore."
"I have a long lifetime full of memories that can be converted
into stories. I'm aiming for a lifestyle that consists of
writing a poem every day and working on all the projects filed in
the bottom drawer - film scripts, unedited poems and short
stories. The trick in life is to make dreams into reality and
that is what I am trying to do. I try to live every day so that
it has some meaning for myself - and hopefully for others."
Thus this silver-haired poet and writer walks around the Island
turning over ideas in her head and putting them to paper in the
hope that one day, the world will see them in print. She sums
herself up best in one of her many poems - "I have no other
choice but to be the woman I am."
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Born in New York City, Kitty describes her childhood as
"delightful." "It was a glorious time. I later wrote a set of
23 short stories based on it. I'm hoping to publish them soon.
After I married, my husband and I moved to Washington, D.C.,
where we raised three children. I was involved in politics on a
small scale and believed we could change the world. My husband
and I had the conviction that it was possible to build a better
world but gradually my idealism faded away. I realized that
governments are strong and politics restricts us more than we can
ever fathom. With this burnt-out idealism came a divorce. My
marriage of 21 years ended and I decided to do things for myself.
I worked as a consultant on many projects and supported
myself."