Musing on the loss of Grace Paley, what better tribute than to say one of her poems aloud?
FAMILY
My father was briliant embarrassed funny handsome
my mother was plain serious principled kind
my grandmother was intelligent lonesome for her
other life her dead children silent
my aunt was beautiful bitter angry loving
I fell among these adjectives in earliest childhood
and was nearly buried with opportunity
some of them stuck to me others
finding me American and smooth slipped away