Carol SeCoy

Carol SeCoy


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Carol SeCoy is a native Oregonian, born into the comfort and clamor of a family of nine children. She met her husband, Jack, on a blind date at the University of Oregon. They lived in Southern California for many years, where Jack and three partners ran a lumber brokerage while she raised their family of five daughters. She was very active in the community until the last child went off to college, when she became the SAT Coordinator for the Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center in Orange County. They have been married for 57 years and have five wonderful daughters and eight just as wonderful grandchildren. You can tell they are very proud of them! Growing older has been a joy for them.

But there are many for whom growing older has been a burden. And it is for these folks she advocate in The Bag Lady War. Carol helped care for aging family members, and understand their concerns. But, as a nation, she feels we seem to overlook the elderly and focus instead on the rights and needs of the criminal element of our society, making sure they are treated properly. A topsy-turvy system, it seems, she is not a champion of murder and mayhem, but she enjoyed sending the Bag Ladies out to set things straight.

Jack and Carol have traveled extensively, sometimes with a hiking group, and other times with friends or on tour. When they are not traveling or with family and friends, they can be found at the gym, in one class or another, or she is squeezing in a little writing. Carol enjoys volunteering for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Ashland, Oregon, where she and jack now reside.

The Bag Lady War: A Novel

Carol Leonard SeCoy
iUniverse (2007)
ISBN 9780595470358
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (9/08)

Synopsis: This thought-provoking satire begins the day eight-two year old Josie Winkworth is set upon by young gang members in the park near her home, then hears Senator Bart Farley on TV fillabustering for use
of the Social Security fund to build more prisons. In an electifying moment, she and her friend, Mabel, both widowed by street criminals and financially pinched, realize the safe, well-provided environment reserved for prisoners is just what they need. If Senator Farley indeed manages to cut their Social Security, their otherwise certain fate is to become pitiful wards of the state in a cheap nursing home, where everyone is old and ill, and "just waiting for the last bell to ring." Their patriotic solution is to earn their way into prison by declaring war on crime and killing enough criminals to offset the cost of their own care, at the same time making the streets a little safer. But they have no idea how to use a gun.

They stage a spirited target practice in Mabel's basement, encouraged by the words of John F. Kennedy, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country," then set out on their missions feeling like one of the elder George Bush's "Thousand points of Light." They have found that old women are seldom noticed, which gives them great freedom of movement. However, they think one of the Articles of War may be to protect the dignity of the fallen foe, so they humanely cover their victims with paper grocery bags, unwittingly creating the mystery of the "bagman murders." When another friend is widowed she joins them in their war. By the time they are through they have left a trail of bag-covered bodies from Santa Ana to Los Angeles, blown up a crack house and two vans full of gang members, and set off a gang war.

Investigators Paige Turner and Mark Wisneski of the Santa Ana police struggle to solve the case, first meeting the old ladies when called upon to investigate the body of the hapless drug smuggler found buried in Mabel's back yard. Before turning themselves in to a speechless Turner and Wisneski at a quaint tea party, they have a splendid farewell party for a terminally ill friend and help her end her life. The nation is in shock to find the admitted bagman murderers are three sweet old ladies, who invoke all that is patriotic to state their cases and refuse a jury trial. They are so happy in prison that other desperate oldsters swarm to follow their example, thereby turning prisons into first-class, ACLU monitored old folk's homes. The elder's tutoring and responsible behavior do wonders to improve the younger prison population.

Andy Krach of the Orange County Register dubs them "The Bag Ladies" in reference to their humane use of grocery bags, and chronicles their story. He also assists them in writing their stirring "Declaration of the Interdependence of the American People," fashioned after the nation's Declaration of Independence. Their words inspire a nation that had lost its way and earn the women a place in history.