Kelly Corrigan : Bucket List
Kelly Corrigan is a writer, podcaster, and TV host. But she is also a mom, daughter, sister and friend. If you read her books or listen to her interviews, you know she is also just plain relatable.
She asks deep questions at the same time she is disarmingly funny. Although Kelly is now fairly famous, you always feel as if somehow she could still be your best friend.
I guess that is why I thought she might come to Charlotte. As some of you know, I am not beyond just emailing some authors, (let’s say Ron Hall and Denver Moore) and inviting them to Charlotte with no real plan. I will admit to you here, that is exactly what I did with Kelly.
For months, I had been listening to her podcast “Kelly Corrigan Wonders.” Throughout Spring of 2021, Kelly and I went on long walks together as I listened to her interview everyone from Melinda Gates to Austin Channing Brown. At the time, Covid was waning so we were all emerging from months of separation and quarantine. As I listened to Kelly bring so many great women to her podcast I felt as if we were all just in a room talking. It made me imagine a Fall where our WF&S workshops could be held in person with women connecting and inspiring each other—in real life not on zoom.
That got me so excited that I dreamed a little bigger. What if we could have a WF&S event that gathered women together not to raise money but just to be inspired by a fabulous speaker?
I stopped mid-stride somewhere in Freedom Park and thought, “I wonder if Kelly Corrigan would come?”
It felt like a whisper—yes, her. It also felt, like all whispers, more than a little crazy. I didn’t actually have an event planned but to plan one I needed a speaker—kind of a chicken and an egg problem.
When I got home, I Googled how to book Kelly Corrigan and sent an aspirational email.
Within days, I had my answer (YES!) and then, just like Ron and Denver, I had to figure out exactly what I had invited her to. I called a few friends to see if they thought I was totally crazy (No, not entirely they said). One in particular, WF&S coach Meg Robertson, actually burst into tears.
“Are you kidding me?” she asked. “You invited Kelly Corrigan?”
I nodded not sure why Meg was so overcome with emotion about the idea.
Turns out, Meg has “Meet Kelly Corrigan” on her bucket list, because of her book, The Middle Place. This memoir about Kelly’s battle with breast cancer was one of Meg’s all-time favorites even before Meg herself was diagnosed with the same disease.
Meg had even written this Kelly Corrigan quote from the book into her phone notes to return to again and again:
“Please let me be here, in this house, with these people. Please let me stay. Because this is it. This is the great adventure.”
The quote had struck a deep chord with Meg because she has always been a grand adventurer wanting to travel and do more. Meg has hiked over 1000 miles of the Appalachian Trail solo. Meg has biked from Charlotte to DC with her police officer husband, Rollin, and fellow officers. Meg has trained for and completed an Ironman competition just to prove to herself that a “non-athlete” could.
At one point in her life, Meg lived for the next travel challenge but after having two children, she reflected that she once thought “motherhood meant a lot fewer backpacking adventures.” But on September 11, 2020, Meg was diagnosed with breast cancer. It will be one year this week that Meg crossed the threshold that so many do not want or see coming: the Cancer Door.
After a year of three surgeries, Meg is cautiously optimistic and at the same time re-reading Kelly’s quote with a new perspective.
“I didn’t need to go backpacking, I didn’t need to ride my bike across the country,” Meg wrote me. “I felt like I could die happy if I had to go. The only thing I would REALLY miss are my people. I’m not ready and I don’t want to leave the adventure of my lifetime which is the adventure of being their mother.”
Our “WF&S Talks with Kelly Corrigan” event is now planned (it’s going to be fabulous) and she will be here in person on October 13. Some days as I struggled with logistics and worried about a Delta spike threatening to cancel it, I wondered whether I had listened to the right whisper. Why in the world had I emailed Kelly’s agent and invited the author to an event that I really hadn’t yet planned?
Then, I think about my friend Meg and I have at least one pretty great reason what that whisper was all about. I hope you will be there, too.
—Kathy
Kathy Izard is the founder of Women | Faith & Story (www.womenfaithstory.com) and the award-winning author of three books. Her first memoir The Hundred Story Home released in 2016, received a Christopher Award for outstanding inspirational nonfiction. In 2019, she created a children’s book, A Good Night for Mr. Coleman with artist Evelyn Henson, encouraging kids to dream big and do good. Her new memoir, The Last Ordinary Hour, is now available in ebook, audiobook, and paperback through your favorite booksellers. Kathy’s work has been featured on NPR as well as the Today Show inspiring people to be changemakers in their communities. Learn more www.kathyizard.com.