Planning My Escape

Mary Jo Homstad was born on March 21, 1947. She died in an automobile accident on December 1, 1978 at the age of 31. The daughter of Dr. Joseph Homstad and Lucy Hanson, Mary grew up in Denver Colorado. In 1965 she enrolled at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, and after graduation spent a year teaching English in Japan. She lived in rural Decorah. Mary had many jobs, but she always saw herself as a poet. She would fill small notebooks with thoughts, phrases, overheard dialogue, drafts of poems and quotations from her favorite writers. When she had accumulated several notebooks, she would transcribe and revise the thoughts and poems into a large hardbound volume. She had created several of these volumes when she died. In 1980 her mother Lucy Hanson Homstad, with the help of her brother Joe and editor Douglas Anderson, put together a book of poems and drawings from her journals called Weavings. The first print run of 600 copies led to a second edition.