She was just Lottie
One of Bodie’s working girls.
Her past colored her present and her future
She could do nothing to change it.She married a respectable
business owner Eli Johl who was
A butcher and owner of the City Market.
Yet, even that could not erase her past sins.How do you out live your past?
Decisions made under pressure,
Or in a weak moment shouldn’t
Live longer than you do.
It’s is hard for others to see past your sins
When social norms are rigid.
Women have no rights anyway,
Only property of another.Even in death her banishment did not end.
Cheryl McDonald 2023©
Her grave generously placed at the far end
Of the cemetery away from good citizens,
Her husband granted the favor
Of not having to bury her outside the fence.
Change is slow and control is hard to give up.
Seems like a story out of today’s headlines.
We still can’t let people be who they are meant to be.
Will we ever learn?
Humans are fallible,
Perfection does not exist,
And normal is a myth.
Love conquers all if only we let it in.
If you would like to hear me read this poem, please click below.
March 8th, is International Women’s Day,
Today’s art piece, blog, and poem are something I did in 2023, however, I thought it was relevant today. Women make up over half the population of the world, and yet often have little or no say in their personal or public lives. They have a harder time starting businesses, getting education, or even getting promoted. Women often are the ones who bear the brunt of personal and sexual mistreatment and we are often not taken seriously even when we have proof. Project 2025 wants to take us back to the 1950’s when we couldn’t have a credit card, own a home, or even have control over our own bodies. They might even prefer to go back farther to the 1920’s when we couldn’t even vote!
This image is called Lottie Johl, because it starts with a photograph I took inside the Johl house in Bodie, California. Bodie is a ghost town in northern California which was a gold mining town. It is one of the most intact mining towns from the 1800s that is being preserved by the State of California. The park rangers there practice what is called “arrested decay” which means they are preserving to a degree the buildings and their contents as best they can without revitalizing them, and using them as a historical landmark of the California Gold Rush.
Lottie Johl was a call girl in Bodie, she lived from 1855-1899 and she fell in love with a German immigrant, Elias Johl, who was a butcher and part owner of the City Market. They lived in a little house near the market. Even though Lottie did everything she could to turn her life around, she was never accepted by “polite society” and she died of accidental poisoning from a mistake made by the pharmacist. Here are a couple of website links I found that share her story. The first is the Bodie State Historic Park, where you can find out more about this amazing place and if you are inspired please make a donation to help support their mission. The second is a site I found called Find a Grave, which has entries by others that further tell the story of Lottie.
These stories tie in with my continuing themes of change and transformation, which people have been going through since the beginning of time. Please celebrate the women in your life, give your daughters a chance to make a difference in the world. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion make the world a better place. Sorry men, you really don’t have all the answers.
For more information about International Women’s Day or to participate in activities surrounding it.
United Nations- International Women’s Day
My goal for these images is to create something that tells a story that can bring you, the viewer, closer to history as well as add some understanding about how we are all connected in our stories through time. Maybe these images and poetry will also someday become a book too, just like Mystic Dreams of Transformation.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments.
Have a Happy Day!
Cheryl
For more information and to see this art piece up close on my website
This is going to be a limited edition series, and I plan to only sell 20 signed 18″ x 12″ copies of each print in this series.
On to the Next Adventure 