Pamela Valois - Blooming in Winter: The Story of a Remarkable Twentieth-Century Woman

PRAISE FOR BLOOMING IN WINTER

Beautifully written, filled with family conflict, love and suspense, the story of Jacomena Maybeck is the tale of every woman and her struggles to find her voice and create a life on her own terms.

LOUISE NAYER, author of Burned: A Memoir, an Oprah Great Read

Navigating widowhood and grappling with the onset of old age, Maybeck embraces her independence and freely explores all artistic inquiries. A reverential celebration of a feisty woman with a zest for growth, art, community, and dynamic living. This careful consideration of an extraordinary life emphasizes creative expression and the strength of womanhood.

BOOKLIFE REVIEWS

Many books deal with Berkeleys architectural roots and Maybecks influence. Blooming in Winter successfully intertwines Berkeleys architecture and social history, seamlessly integrating architectural design with family combat and a womans fight for and right to independence.

LESLIE M. FREUDENHEIM, author of Building with Nature: Inspiration for the Arts and Crafts Home

Planted in the soil of the Maybeck family, Blooming in Winter is an absorbing tale and a graceful retelling of a womans life. Widowed at age sixty-one, Jacomena Maybeck seeksand findsher own identity as an artist and storyteller.

SANDRA BUTLER, co-author of It Never Ends: Mothering Middle-Aged Daughters

[This] biography focuses on a venerable woman who left her mark on Berkeley, California. Valois careful selection of quotes from Maybecks contradictory, Rashomon-like diaries are deployed to great effect, furthering the vision of a charming woman anyone would love to know. [T]he account feels like a nostalgic conversation about a deeply loved, mutual friend. An engaging portrait.

KIRKUS REVIEWS

In Blooming in Winter, Valois introduces us to her friend and muse, Jacomena Maybeck, and reveals an insiders vision of Maybeck life and architecture. Carefully curated and based on letters, diaries, interviews, and extensive research, Valoiss collage is a compelling portrait of a fascinating woman who provides a glimpse into how to balance dark thoughts with small pleasures and live fully at any age.

RUTH O. SAXTON, author of The Book of Old Ladies, and Professor Emerita of English at Mills College

While Blooming in Winter presents the story of Jacomenas life in a legendary family, it shares themes that are universal to all womenthe challenges of fitting in while maintaining independence in a circle of large personalities, the struggle to find creative outlets and realizing your passion, and gracefully aging while change is all around you.

JAN BERCKEFELDT, Executive Director, Maybeck Foundation

Blooming in Winter portrays my mother, Jacomena Maybeck, as she was in life. With a fine ear for my mothers wit, a wink at her quirkiness, and a knowledge of her secrets, Pam Valois reveals the secrets of a good old age.

ADRIANA (CHERRY) MAYBECK NITTLER

BLOOMING IN WINTER

Jacomena Maybeck, 1978.
Photograph by Pam Valois.

Copyright 2021, Pamela Valois

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, digital scanning, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please address She Writes Press.

Published 2021

Printed in the United States of America

Print ISBN: 978-1-64742-116-8

E-ISBN: 978-1-64742-117-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020925551

For information, address:

She Writes Press

1569 Solano Ave #546

Berkeley, CA 94707

Interior design by Tabitha Lahr

She Writes Press is a division of SparkPoint Studio, LLC.

All company and/or product names may be trade names, logos, trademarks, and/or registered trademarks and are the property of their respective owners.

Names and identifying characteristics have been changed to protect the privacy of certain individuals.

For Lloyd, with whom I shared
the joy of knowing Jacomena.

I think that to one in sympathy with nature,
each season, in its turn, seems the loveliest.

MARK TWAIN

I wake to screeching Stellers jays competing for a soak in the water bowl. Climbing the worn wooden stairs in search of coffee, Im greeted by the light glowing on the etched beams, and the tall windows filling the living room with sunshine and hope. Sometimes I see herJacomena van Huizen Maybecksitting at the head of what is now my dining room table, planning her day on a yellow pad of paper, or writing to the twins. The spinning spiders of her day have left the rafters. Outside the south window, robins queue for a bath, hiding in the last of the sycamore leaves while they wait. Pepe whistles to be uncovered, looking forward to sharing breakfast. Lloyd has made coffee!

In March 2013, I moved to 2751 Buena Vista Way, the Wallen and Jacomena Maybeck House,This morning, sitting at the dining room table admiring my neighbors flowering magnolia framed by the great north window, I find myself wishing once again that I had asked her more about her life. I knew her only in her late years, and am left with so many questions. Where did she come from, and what had shaped this venerable woman we loved?

In 1977, I learned from a friend that Jacomena Maybeck was renting out the Maybeck Cottage across the street from her home at 2751. As Lloyd and I opened the Cottage gate for our first visit, a woman in her midseventies, dressed in a halter top and shorts, came into view. She was up on the roof with a tar pot and a trowel. Our future landlady had a long face, twinkling blue eyes, and a shock of brilliant white hair, cut short. We had never met anyone quite like her. She seemed to like us, but wanted to visit our San Francisco flat to get more of a sense of whether we would fit. She came for lunchId made a quicheand was immediately romanced by our young parrot, Pepe, who jumped on her hand and gently pecked at her Navajo turquoise rings. Lloyd and I exchanged incredulous looks: Pepe never liked anyone right off the bat. Jackie rented us the Cottage, and we felt wed died and gone to heaven. Our threadbare Persian rugs and overstuffed secondhand furniture fit right in. We had a winter living room for cold nights and a breezy summer living room for warm ones. The Cottage is settled in an oasis of greenery with a view straight across the Bay to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Those years in the Cottage were idyllic. Pepe perched in the apple tree until the day that Fat Cat Rudy scared him and he flew into a thorn bush, hurting his eye. Lloyd, a postdoctoral fellow at Kaiser Permanente, would flop on the couch with a manuscript on his lap. After our workdays, wed sit in the garden or the cozy coffee nook, and on weekends, visit Jackie in her sunny house uphill across the street. Supper at Jackies might be a potato and salad. She would heat up the great room by burning brush that shed gathered from the neighborhood.