Chap. 5, pg. 38: stretch
That’s how it ends. Thanks to anyone/everyone for reading. I intend to clean it up, but that’s all the bones and most of the musculature (malformed as some of it is). I wrote it because I haven’t read any comics that had this sort of outcome.
I wanted to make something that said 1) it was okay to be in a time of life (even if it’s your whole life) where you didn’t have a partner, 2) being someone with significance in their life was not dependent on having a spouse or children, and 3) finding meaning and purpose was a life-long thing and didn’t conclude with partnership/marriage.
The idea for this had been percolating 15 years or so and culminated in walking around a cemetery thinking about what would go on a tombstone for someone who WASN’T a wife or mother.
Faith-based content isn’t for everyone, I know, but Tim Keller’s sermon “A Reason for Living” (among others of his about singleness) helped. So did the podcast ‘Snacks and Good Company-Singleness,’ to some extent.
Tremendous thanks to Sarah, for her friendship, unflagging support, and listening to me prattle about NLL for three years. To Jo- thanks for your help and friendship and hospitality. Thanks also to Sarah Joy Adams, who I may or may not ever tell I wrote this, for her completely unearned support in my education and development, and for being the person she was/is.
Love that ending. I feel like you really got through your message and the points you summarized at the end really well. It felt like we had examples of women who were supposedly fulfilling these perfect roles and how they still aren’t a perfect fit for everyone, and people have to find ways to carry on and to create their own meaning, and that it’s okay to need help just as a person without it being related to who you are as a wife/mother/woman etc. I thought there were so many moments of comedy and the animal illustrations as usual, bring such a unique freshness and spin to the visuals, and I feel like the sketches of the nature scenes and trees may have been difficult but they show such an incredible connection and understanding between you and nature, in such a beautiful way.
I’m really impressed Lisa, I greatly enjoyed reading this, it felt very real and vulnerable and was told with skill. <3 Thank you for your time and effort and for sharing it with the world.