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Biography of a storyteller:
My life has been about words. I have always wanted to have my own words--that no one would steal. It all started with anagrams. Anagrams was a favorite game of my grandmother’s and of all her children. My mom, and her brothers and sisters, would sit for hours and play with ancient square tiles with faded, raised white letters on them. Some of the letters were actually altered by my grandmother’s mother. “She thought there were too many Ps, so she made some of them into different letters,” my grandmother explained. The evening ritual had the family gathered around the table with gramma's cookie jar in the middle. One would reach into the jar and pull out a fresh tile at each turn. I was always amazed at the words they could put together with the strangest, most seemingly random string of letters. And then one of them would steal the word you worked so hard to create, and turn it into something entirely different. They would take your word – even if you were just a little kid. The pleasure of stealing and recreating a word trumped any possible twinge of guilt for robbing a six-year-old of her prize word. That must have been when it started for me. 
Gramma Purvis, 100-years-old, my sister and myself.
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I learned a lot about family, about life, and about the English language around the old oak table in my gramma's dining room. My gramma is 99-years-old now and still beats us at anagrams. If the anagram game tiles were ancient when I was growing up, you can only imagine how worn they are now. Years and years and years of creating and recreating words that build up, words that tear down; words that are cherished, words that amaze, and words that infuriate (try stealing one of gramma’s words and you feel that one!). It’s been a lifetime of using letters to communicate and to play. Building words that make people clap, gasp, and scratch their heads. Word games developed and deepened my love for the English language. I never tire of finding a new way to turn a phrase, or to make a connection to someone through a cleverly written piece. I would love to do the same for your business, not-for-profit, or mission.
Member, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Board member, Pikes Peak Chapter, PRSA |