Cape Ann’s Oral Historian/Medicine Woman

July,1981, Gloucester, Massachusetts

For some time several of my friends had been telling me about an extraordinary woman who gave walking tours of Cape Ann, educating people to local history with a feminist/wiccan perspective. We had a lot of mutual friends and they were all saying “You should really meet Donna…you two would have a lot to talk about. I can’t recall how it came to pass but I was invited to have dinner at her home…a quiet house in the woods on near the Gloucester /Rockport border. I was greeted by her daughter Erin & a very inquisitive and affectionate kitty. The house and surrounding area where filled with thriving animals, bunnies, cats & two goats…. Donna was easy to talk to and seemed to know a lot about me…apparently she was friends with Claudia, Donna Marie & Alicia, Jeanine, Kasha, Kay Rubin,Lenny Horowitz, Vincent Ferrini….I guess the right question should be who didn’t she know? Donna & I would become good friends & she would be a great advisor. Initially things were a little awkward…Donna was attracted to me & while I had dated several older women she was 38 & I was 23…a little out of my comfort zone. I would end up spending a few nights with her before I moved to Foxboro that September but I liked her as a friend & someone I knew I could learn much from…the other chemistry wasn’t there.

Almost a year later Donna would perform an exorcism of sorts on an apartment I was about to move into. The guy who lived there before had beaten up his girlfriend several times, so Donna burnt sage in each corner of the room to get rid of the negative energy. I think it worked.