My Literary Umbrella

On this rainy day in San Francisco, I have been carrying a special, lovely, big, sturdy umbrella given to me some years ago by my dear friend B. It is special because it has on its panels intricate drawings of eight famous women writers: Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Emma Lazarus, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, and Sylvia Plath. I thoroughly enjoy using this umbrella, and I often get admiring comments on it. With other more ordinary umbrellas, I don't mind much if I lend them or lose them. But I take extra good care to make sure I don't leave or lose this one. When I am using it, I always check before I leave a classroom, office, shop, or restaurant to make sure I haven't left it behind. Yes, an umbrella is a simple, utilitarian item, but mine is a depiction of some great literary women, and it gives me pleasure to use it, and to receive compliments on it. Thanks, B!