Essay One - The Princess Who Kept On Playing

Once upon a time, there was a little girl.

She had beautiful dresses, wonderful horses, fabulous adventures, and a grandfather who owned a football team.

Not any football team.

The Philadelphia Eagles.

She grew up on Philadelphia’s Main Line.

Yes, that Main Line.

The Philadelphia Story. Grace Kelly. The Devon Horse Show. Beautiful homes, magnificent horses, impeccable manners, and generations of tradition.

She was a little awkward, very well-mannered, and knew exactly which fork to use.

Her grandfather was larger than life. Her mother was as formidable as she was beautiful. And her girlfriends were always ready for another adventure.

She was loved. She was protected. And she was having the time of her life.

There were horses, helicopters, football games, fabulous parties, famous people, and a tremendous amount of freedom.

And did I mention it was the 1980s?

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, quite a bit, as it turned out.

But we’re not there yet.

Because every good story deserves a proper beginning.

And that little girl?

That was me.

My grandfather was Leonard Tose, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles.

To the rest of the world, he was a businessman, a football team owner, and a man who made headlines.

To me, he was Grandpop.

And Grandpop had a rather unusual way of doing things.

Once, he sent a helicopter to pick me up from a horse show.

The judge asked for a ride home, too.

I mean, why not?

Welcome to my childhood.

My mother, Susan Tose Spencer, was another extraordinary character in this story.

Beautiful, brilliant, ambitious, disciplined, and one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever known.

She was a trailblazer in professional football and a woman who believed in getting things done.

She also believed that presentation was everything.

And she meant it.

I grew up with extraordinary opportunities, but I also grew up watching people work their asses off.

My mother was one of them.

That example stayed with me.

Of course, being well-mannered and disciplined didn’t mean I was incapable of a little mischief.

There was the time I threw a party while my mother was away.

Someone punched a hole in her wallpapered bedroom door.

Not good.

Fortunately, Lena, our wonderful babysitter and cleaning lady, and her daughter Bunny came to the rescue.

We cleaned up and replaced the door.

There was one small problem.

We didn’t have any matching wallpaper.

I figured maybe my mother wouldn’t notice.

WRONG.

She noticed.

Of course she noticed.

This was Susan Tose Spencer, the woman who believed presentation was everything.

And apparently, that included the bedroom door.

I look back at those years with enormous affection.

The horses, the football games, the parties, the beautiful clothes, the extraordinary people.

And the girlfriends.

Oh, the girlfriends.

Some of the girls I rode horses with all those years ago are still my closest friends today.

We’ve grown up together, laughed together, experienced joy and heartbreak, raised families, and collected more stories than I could possibly tell in one sitting.

When I look through my old photographs, I see so much more than the extraordinary life we were fortunate to have.

I see the people who made it wonderful.

And I see a little girl who had no idea what was coming next.

There was another little girl who was part of my childhood, too.

Her name was Sara Crewe.

She lived in the pages of A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

It was my favorite book.

I still have my copy, beautifully illustrated by Tasha Tudor and published, rather fittingly, in Philadelphia.

I loved Sara’s imagination, her kindness, and the way she carried herself when her circumstances changed.

I didn’t realize it then, but I think that story helped shape me.

And now, all these years later, I write children’s books myself.

 Funny how the stories we love as children sometimes become part of the stories we live as adults.

When I was little, I imagined marrying a prince of a man, working for the Philadelphia Eagles, having a bunch of children, keeping my girlfriends close, and having a wonderful time.

It seemed like a perfectly reasonable plan.

And in some ways, it worked out beautifully.

In others, life had a few surprises waiting for me.

I still have my childhood copy of A Little Princess.

I still have all of those same girlfriends.

And I still believe life can be extraordinary.

But I’ve learned something about fairy tales.

The most interesting part isn’t always the beginning.

And happily ever after isn’t necessarily the ending.

Sometimes it’s what you make of everything in between.

To be continued…

Keep on playing. ❤️