“If I Had to Live My Life Over”

There is a famous quotation that has made the rounds on greeting cards, the internet, and magazines over the years. It reads, in part, “I’d like to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but… fewer imaginary ones… If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.”

The quotation was attributed to “Nadine Stair, 85 years old, Louisville, Kentucky.” I used to know the Kentucky author Byron Crawford and was honored to help him with one of his columns. In his book Kentucky Stories (Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Company, 1994), pp. 1-2, Crawford writes that he did some research and found someone who had also wondered about the author and had talked to her on the phone. (The person who had called her was daughter of a Louisville resident named Stair, who had gotten at least a phone call a week for about fourteen years, from people wanting to use the article with permission or to congratulate the author.) The author’s name was actually Nadine Strain, who died in 1988. She had published the piece in Family Circle magazine (March 27, 1978), apparently had published nothing else, and was surprised to learn her piece had been so popular and that so many people had inquired about it. Clearly her writing had touched many hearts!