I was knitting away on a pair of socks when I heard on the news that Kurt Vonnegut had died. In an instant I was transported back thirty+ years to summers on Cape Cod and a lovely lady who was an integral part of those great times, Mrs Kelly.

When we were much younger and on a pretty tight budget, we were looking for a place to vacation that was on the ocean, reasonably priced and one that welcomed children. A coworker of my husband's mentioned a bed and breakfast in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts that he and his family had stayed at and loved. It was inexpensive and the owner, Mrs Kelly, was a jewel. He connected us with Mrs Kelly and we were off to Cape Cod.

I loved the B & B and the ocean and the seafood and, especially Mrs Kelly. And she loved our daughter, Barbara. Mrs Kelly was in her early 70's but that did not slow her down. She swam in the ocean everyday, rain or shine, summer or winter. She claimed she got her stamina growing up in Brittany, France. It was there that she learned all about the treasures of the sea. Her favorite such treasure being mussels. And it was in the mussel hunting that she enlisted our daughter's help. Barbara was probably five or six that first summer and an early riser. She and Mrs Kelly would have cereal together and then go off mussel hunting. That needed to be done when the tide was out and the mussels were readily accessible. They brought back bags of mussels and Mrs Kelly would steam them and serve them with melted butter and fresh lemon slices. My husband was dubious and not that wild about mussels but the rest of us, that included other boarders as well, thought she did an admirable job cooking the critters. We ate them all up.

Mrs Kelly, her first name was Doris, but it never felt right calling her that so she remained Mrs Kelly, anyway, she had had quite a life. If we ended up at the B & B near cocktail time, she would put a nice drink together and she and I often ended up talking for hours. And that was how I learned about Kurt Vonnegut's connection to Mrs Kelly and the B & B.

I was a big fan of Vonnegut's, having read Sirens of Titan, God Bless You Mr Rosewater, Slaughterhouse Five and everything else he had published. My ears perked right up when she mentioned his name. Apparently Kurt had roomed at the B & B when he was a young, struggling writer. He worked at some job on the Cape during the day and pounded out his prose at night. This was before computers and he had an old typewriter, not an electric one. His late night writing drove the other residents of the inn and Mrs Kelly nuts.

She was a big supporter of the arts and more than one struggling artist briefly called the B & B home. She wanted to be supportive of Vonnegut too but it was really a strain and a pain.

Mrs Kelly told me her solution was to create work space for him to use at night in the bathroom. Somehow she and he put together a padded work space so that his typing was muffled and the complaints disappeared. Everyone was happy except her Chesapeake Bay retriever. The dog was terrified of thunderstorms and took refuge in the bathtub whenever one hit the Cape. With Kurt in the bathroom, the dog had no where to hide and so it howled instead. More unhappy boarders. Kurt solved the problem by inviting the dog to join him when those pesky storms hit. There was peace in the inn again.

Obviously Vonnegut's late night typing paid off and he went on to achieve tons of success. I have to say that whenever I used that bathroom, I had a mental image of Vonnegut's makeshift office and that goofy dog in the bathtub.

Mrs Kelly was an inspiration to me. She was one of the most positive people I've ever known. During those long cocktail hours I learned a lot about her. Her life had been very hard and full of sadness and loss but you would never have known it. Once, after telling me about a particularly painful time in her life, I asked her how she stayed so positive and she said you just have to put the past behind you and keep going. Okay, I remember thinking, this is one piece of advice I will try to remember. I don't always succeed but I do try.

So that is the story of the Kurt Vonnegut connection.

By the way, if there are any readers out there who have not read his books, you should, they are imaginative, entertaining, well written and remain as interesting today as they were 30 years ago.