By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Carole Sarkan’s Grand Rapids home is filled with love and pottery from her artistic and beloved Aunt Mary Grabill. Though Aunt Mary died in 2008, her story lives on thanks to a powerful connection between aunt and niece.
Within the pages of the children’s book “Aunt Mary’s Pottery” is a life story worth telling and a message of hope and healing that merits sharing. The book is perfectly written by Sarkan, a 1975 Bowling Green High School graduate, and beautifully illustrated by Emily Christoff-Flowers, a fellow Bowling Green High School alumna who graduated in 1983.
Written in delightful rhyming prose, the book relays Aunt Mary’s life as told to Sarkan over the years. She and Aunt Mary communicated for several years by sending recorded letters to one another. Most of Aunt Mary’s stories were included in those treasured tapes, Sarkan said.
Though the book starts in the present day as Aunt Mary’s pottery seems to convince Sarkan there is a story to tell, the details of Mary’s life then flow through the pages from birth through her pottery legacy.
The writing process starts early
Sarkan’s close relationship with her aunt was the impetus for this book. She was always impressed with her aunt’s determination to keep going in the face of obstacles. Despite an almost life-long passion for writing, Sarkan didn’t start writing for publication until 2011, three years after Aunt Mary’s death.
The retired elementary school teacher turned children’s book author first became infatuated with writing as a young child. She grew up with her mother reading stories to her nightly and instilling a love of reading and writing at an early age. As a six-year-old, she dreamed of writing children’s books.
Frances Brent, her sixth-grade teacher at Conneaut Elementary in Bowling Green, inspired and encouraged her the most, Sarkan said.
“Mrs. Brent, she had a humor that was over the top. She master-pieced our writing, so we often read part of our writings in class. It made us feel important and gave us confidence,” Sarkan explained.
She pursued studying art and writing at Bowling Green State University, but switched to education where she could combine it all as a language arts/social studies teacher. For 35 years, she taught in the Bowling Green City Schools, imparting some of the same lessons she learned from her sixth-grade teacher.
Writing a children’s book became a reality when Sarkan was recovering from surgery. A stroke of fate or divine intervention filled her head with ideas for two stories while she was recuperating. “Aunt Mary’s Pottery” was one, and the other was for “And Candy Smiled,” a book about the family dog who fought courageously to live and navigate life on three legs after being hit by a car. Both ideas were steeped in a message of hope and healing.
“I wrote ‘And Candy Smiled’ in two days and then ‘Aunt Mary’s Pottery’ in another two days,” Sarkan said. She can’t explain it but believes it was meant to be.
The universe stepped in again when she met Emily Christoff-Flowers on Facebook and asked her to illustrate “And Candy Smiled.” Sarkan didn’t know Emily, but knew her older siblings, who were closer in age to Sarkan. Her artwork had come highly recommended.
Christoff-Flowers also found her passion early on, drawing people, animals and nature. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts at BGSU and has been a professional artist ever since, now living in Virginia.
The talent combination was magical. Sarkan’s words and Christoff-Flowers’ illustrations made a beautiful first effort in 2012. Sarkan’s second book was not Aunt Mary’s story, but a sequel after Candy the Springer Spaniel passed away. Christoff-Flowers created the same visual beauty for Sarkan’s “And Candy Lived” in 2015.
Aunt Mary’s book sat on the back burner for several more years. And when the time was right for Sarkan, the time wasn’t good for Christoff-Flowers. Emotionally, she was exhausted, having lost four of her six siblings and then her father. Physically, she was struggling with long COVID and the aftereffects of a car accident.
Sarkan circled around with Christoff-Flowers again when she still needed an illustrator. Aunt Mary’s struggles and ability to rise above inspired Christoff-Flowers to accept the challenge and push ahead.
“This book was ironic for me,” Christoff-Flowers said during a phone interview. “I was dealing with health issues and emotional issues, and I had an artist’s block.”
Because Aunt Mary was successful despite her struggles with health, Christoff-Flowers felt she had to find a new way to work beyond her recent limitations. “I’m not a quitter and I won’t quit on you,” she told Sarkan.
The prose and the illustrations were ready to come together.
Aunt Mary’s story comes to life
Mary was one of six children in a family surrounded by music and art. Three of her siblings, including Sarkan’s father Jim Grabill, were musically inclined. Mary’s artistry was in painting and pottery.
After she contracted polio at 11 years old, art became her saving grace—primarily in the form of a potter’s wheel and clay. She was determined not to let her diagnosis keep her from enjoying her art and animals. Mary had to repeat fifth grade because of the polio, but after that, it never slowed her down, Sarkan said. Mary completed high school and went on to graduate from Ohio State University.
As a young adult, Mary’s first official pottery studio was fashioned out of a chicken coop in the family’s backyard, complete with a pottery wheel and kiln. There she and Jane Taylor created earth-toned, useful ceramic pieces under the portmanteau Graylor.
Mary moved to Martha’s Vineyard to work and live where creativity and culture abounded.
In the 1950s, she discovered Coconut Grove, Florida, for its artistic community and proximity to the ocean and nature. The community today is still known for its artsy Bohemian flair.
Aunt Mary made a name for herself in Florida, this time under the sign: Sandpiper Studio. Eventually, the Coconut Grove shop was bulldozed by the city. The takeover devastated her, but she never showed her defeat, Sarkan said.
She moved to southern Miami to start again, this time her potter was under the name Mary at the Pond, because her property had a pond in the back.
“Her polio and arthritis started getting worse and worse. She had to form pots with the backs of her hands, but she loved her place with the pond.” Sarkan said. “There were swans, ducks, herons and turtles, and the swans would come up to her whenever she went out there.”
A photo of Mary with the swans is a prized possession, along with the hundreds of pieces of her pottery.
“Everyone loved Mary, especially the animals,” Sarkan said. “She would walk into a house, and they would congregate around her.”
Animals were often depicted in her finished pieces.
Her work knew no bounds. “She used pottery for everything,” Sarkan said. “She would have huge parties and everything would be served in her pottery, from casseroles to coffee. She even made pottery footstools.”
When Aunt Mary’s health continued to deteriorate, Sarkan moved her to Grand Rapids Care Center to be near. She visited their home for meals and had a special connection with Candy. Sarkan and her aunt would sit on the hill in front of her house and paint.
Aunt Mary passed away in 2008, but her presence was still felt in their house. When Candy died, Sarkan was sure Aunt Mary was there to welcome her.
Her collectibles sit on shelves; they are tucked into corners and hang from archways as warm reminders of the remarkable life of Mary Grabill. Those precious pieces of her life are why the book exists, Sarkan said. “My philosophy is that life goes on. It is okay to be sad, but we have to know there is more.”
She is excited to introduce the book to the local community and beyond.
Sarkan will have a book launch and book signing at the Library House Gallery, 24164 Front Street, Grand Rapids from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday (March 23). The book is available for purchase at the Library House, Round N Round Gifts, 331 N. Main St., Bowling Green, and online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
