Ardis: I hope that means we may be seeing more of Sister Tarlock’s work?

I see we’ve had one story before by Fay Tarlock, “Hermanas,” set in Mexico.

Fay Ollerton was born in Parowan in 1897 but may have been raised in Arizona. After attending BYU and teaching for several years, she and her sister attended Columbia University in New York where she received a masters degree. She returned to the West and worked at several different jobs in Arizona, New Mexico, and San Francisco. She married Anthony “Tony” Tarlock in 1935 or 1936. They lived in Mexico for 2-1/2 years and then lived in the San Ramon Valley and in San Mateo County, California. Fay died in 1989.

Fay’s husband was the president of the California Walnut Growers, so she came by her knowledge of the industry through her husband’s line of work, kind of like Serena. He didn’t seem to be a member of the church, so Jeff could have been based on Tony.

Unlike Wallace E, my first moment of “oh, yes!” WAS when the woman with “the interesting face” (!) talked about folk songs from her Arizona homeland. And Serena’s ““Please don’t call me that … rather say that I’m an earnest seeker,” got to me for probably deeply personal reasons, reasons related to why the phrase “Zion was the home of the heart” could start the tears flowing from this nonbeliever’s eyes. Some of this comes from nostalgia—and I have to say, nostalgia for pre-Correlation Mormon culture—but some also comes from the way this story makes a case for belief in a way that is narratively unforced, and emotionally noncoercive.

I think it’s a charming example of popular literature, a bit sentimental, yes, but also able to touch on larger, important themes and not lose sight of the pleasure of small details. I’m really impressed.