The Carter House

I incorporated special things from my past while writing “Flora’s Spell.” The Thompson Family Farm where Flora is said to work belonged to my Great Grand Parents, Arthur and Callie Thompson. In the movie, Flora works at a more affluent home; the home of my Great Grandparents likely resembles the home where Ruthie and Alice live. As fate would have it, the location where we are filming Ruthie and Alice’s home is called, The Carter House built between 1817-1820. My Mom’s maiden name is Carter. Joan Bethelene Carter.

My Mom was an only child, but her Mom, my Nana was the only daughter of Arthur and Callie Thompson along with 11 brothers. I grew up in the 70's spending every summer at the Thompson Farm until I was about 12 or 13. It had no running water; we would use the outhouse and pump water from a well to wash dishes, cook, and occasionally wipe down our bodies with what they called, "a birdbath." Typically, all the brothers would come and visit from various parts of the country when my Nana, Mom, and I, and my entire family came to visit from the big city of Detroit. Below is a picture of the Thompson Farm, and the Carter House.

Some of the characters have names of people in my family dating all the way back to the 1800's. My Great Granny, Callie Thompson, on my Mom's side, and my Grandma, Anna Shensky, on my Dad’s side are two characters names in the movie. My niece is named Callie Anna Shensky; she created the beautiful artwork for our poster of "Flora's Spell." @callieshensky

I named one of the characters Frances. As a young girl, I always dreamed of having a daughter named Frances Opal....(insert last name). When I was pregnant, and I shared the name that I had been dreaming of, no one liked it, including my own Mom. Frances lives, though! The protagonist in the manuscript I workshopped in college is named Frances Sheffler. And, I cast a beautiful and talented triple threat performer, Meredith Charbonnet, that I have watched grow up on stage, as Frances, in “Flora’s Spell.

There are heirlooms in the movie that my family may recognize. The quilts on the bed of Ruthie’s house are quilts that my Mom and my Nana made throughout the years. The burgundy quilt is very special to me; it was made right before my Mom died in April 2012. After her death, when the quilting group presented me with what she had been working on, I learned that my Mom said she "was making the quilt for someone special." The other quilts my Nana made and showcase the dresses my Mom wore a teenager. I have owned the quilts since I left home at 17-years-old. They have traveled on tour with me, were shipped to Paris, and Las Vegas. Gracie used them on her bed as a child.

There is a little silver baby cup in the kitchen at Ruthie's home. It dates all the way back to my great Granny’s house in Baxter, Tennessee, where Flora and Ruthie are said to live. The picture is of my Great Grand Parents, my Nana, Uncle Solon and my brother and me.