You just can’t help but fall in love with someone once you get to know them a little better. “Favorite Things with Friends” is about learning what other people love and how those things have shaped them into who they are now. 

The first part of this series is with the always charming Elaine, whose blog was the first one I followed when I started here. Her wonderful anecdotes, photos, and film knowledge cemented my fondness for her and for continuing to blog here. She is the stuff of novels, with incredible stories and a distinctive signature. There’s even a story behind her use of a pseudonym, “Phoebe Schumard” for her email address:

It’s a two part story.

You know those ads that people can take in high school yearbook congratulating a student for graduating? Well, my parents bought one for me my senior year, and my brother wrote in it, “You’re my Phoebe Caulfield always”. So I always loved that and used that for my email’s fake name.

As for Schumard, I was in a cemetery with my parents visiting my Grandfather, and I had wandered off while my parents and some family members were talking. I tripped on a tree root and fell in front of a headstone that read “Our Darling Elaine”.

Obviously I freaked out. I got up and read the headstone. She was 25 when she died. Her name was Elaine Hazel Shumard. So that memory stuck with me, and from then on I wanted to live my life for her, you know? Do things that maybe she might have wanted to do. I hope I’m making her proud.

I think the answer is a resounding yes. Here are Elaine’s favorite things.