Letters from Stella

Letters from Stella is several stories: first is the maturing of a brilliant enthusiastic thirteen year old child into a sensitive precocious seventeen year old young adult, more mature by far than her contemporaries. Second is a high school history teacher, veteran of World War II, with "battle fatigue" as it was called then. They become friends during the four years of Stella's high school experience, but more than that, along the way, they fall in love. This situation is unacceptable to Bill, It goes against every bit of Bill's honor and code of conduct. He tries to find other love interests, but to no avail. Stella dates, but finds high school boys irrevocably infantile. After graduation, they do declare themselves, and become engaged. However, everywhere Bill turns, he is reminded that he is too old for her. Deep down, he agrees, and finally he breaks the engagement, much to his and Stella's anguish. They head off to college, he to teach, and she to learn, not knowing the other is there. They write letters of grief and misery home to their parents, who decide to take matters into their own hands. They set up a meeting of the pair, force them to read aloud the letters each has written, and this brings them back together. Thus begins the story of the Bill and Stella Douglas family, which is chronicled in the second of the series, Stella and Bill.

Bill Douglas, a World War II veteran and high school history teacher in 1950 in Crocker, a small north Texas town, meets Stella Anderson, a brilliant enthusiastic thirteen year old freshman in his Word History class. He is delighted to find such a receptive mind and begins little at a time to tutor her during her study hall. Stella, who plans to be a veterinarian, is horrified to find that she will not be allowed to take the classes pertaining to that dream because she is a girl. She and the librarian, Miss Lovelady, agree to spend the next four years secretly changing the culture of the school. Stella delights her softball coach, former Marine, Miss Beavers, by being a strong fearless catcher, and by bringing the team to life. Miss Beavers teaches the girls not only to swear, but that the OT, the Other Team,, must be considered the enemy and given no quarter. She teaches them to taunt and denigrate the OT, giving Stella the lead role because of her charisma. This gives Stella a lifelong tool to use when unpleasant people try to take advantage of her. Stella continues to enchant everyone on the staff because of her sunny disposition, desire to learn everything and boundless energy. Stella and Bill become friends and give small gifts to each other for Christmas and at the end of the school year. Bill's first gift is a promise of a book a month. She sends thank you letters for every book, and we trace her maturing through these letters, first written from the view point of a child, gradually becoming more mature and perceptive. Bill sees the potential Stella has, and gives her a C grade to wake her up to the fact that she needs more polish in the work she turns in. She takes him to task because he didn't just tell her, feeling manipulated and betrayed. He muses that she is right, and realizes they do, indeed, have a friendship. He tells his mother, Adell, about Stella and reads the letters to him. She is afraid Stella is a young femme fatal, trying to ensnare her son. She realizes that Stella is just a child, though, when Bill comes home with a gift of a set of ugly awkward bookends made from cedar posts and shellac, and she stops worrying. But she does wonder how this relationship can end if it continues to mature. In Stella's Sophomore year, she attends the animal husbandry class without registering for it. She learns to take care of farm animals, dehorn cattle, castrate calves. Mrs. Nelson, the English teacher, finds that Stella is the poetry lover she seeks in every new class, but seldom finds. Bill wants to marry and start a family. He starts dating among his peers at church. He cannot seem to become interested, even in the really good "prospects," In the meantime, Stella contracts polio between her sophomore and junior years, and Bill goes to see her. The overworked staff thinks he is her father, and asks him to massage her back all night to relieve spasms that might cripple her. He does this two nights in a row, and realizes that the friendship he has for her is more than that. He is shocked to find that he has fallen in love with a student. This is a violation of every code of honor he possesses. He is stricken by this and tries anew to date and fall in love with someone else. Throughout the next two years, Stella realizes that she loves Bill too, and the two walk on eggs, trying not to let the other know. After graduation, when Stella is no longer a student, they do get together and agree to marry. Bill regrets the decision, after hearing from all sides that he is too old for her, that he is doing her a disservice, and he breaks the engagement. They are reunited after their parents bring them face to face and force them to read the letters of woe they have written home about their grief and loss. They do marry, and we begin the story of the Stella and Bill Douglas family, which is continued in the second of the series, Stella and Bill.

Elizabeth Mathieu grew up in Texas in a household of brothers and dogs and cats, an orphaned calf, and runt piglets stashed under the kitchen stove. She left Texas at nineteen and lived on Wake Island for a year, where she was married to a young Coast Guard officer by the captain of a Standard Oil tanker at sea. The two reared six sons, moving up and down the East Coast until they transferred to Seattle. They moved to Malmoe, Sweden, for seven years, then back to Seattle where she now lives. She speaks English very well, Swedish, a scattering of Spanish, a few torturous words of German, and Egg-Latin from her college years. She loves to research and she loves crisp characters with their own unique traits and quirks. She roots their behaviors and conflicts within their experiences and backgrounds. She has a bachelor's degree in psychology and has taught creative writing to home schoolers, drawing classes to Montessori students, journal writing to college students, family history to adults. And everywhere she has lived, she has written, fleshing out characters, making up "what if" plots, seeing how outrageous she can get with a story and still have it believable. Every genre is exciting to Elizabeth. She has written mystery, historical fiction, soft science fiction, short stories, poetry, and she had a human interest column in a local newspaper called, "The Elephant and the Owl," for which she was paid in pots of homemade beer cheese. Elizabeth currently lives in Bellevue, Washington, with her husband, Bud, and their Yorkie, Krystal.