According to the National Retail Federation, Mother’s Day spending will be robust this year.
“Consumers will spend a total of $7 billion on jewelry, $5.9 billion on special outings and $3.5 billion on electronics,” NRF projects. “Additionally, total spending on flowers is expected to reach $3.2 billion, while total spending on greeting cards is expected to reach $1.1 billion this year.”
All of which makes Lydia Cohn’s tribute to late mother Joan Yingling (1930-2008) — an evolving series of children’s books, an eponymous website and a writers’ networking group — even more distinctive.
To backtrack: The Plymouth Meeting woman and her six siblings grew up in Merion Station. When her parents downsized to smaller living quarters, Cohn happily “took possession of the raggedy folder” that contained the many poems her mother had written in between raising seven kids, attending beauty school and working as a hairdresser for John Wanamaker department stores before co-founding a salon in Haddonfield, New Jersey.
“There were seven of us in 11 years, so money was tight, and that was one of the main reasons she went to school, to help the family,” Cohn said. “She eventually became manager of the Wanamaker salons — the one in Wynnewood and, then, the downtown salon — before she and another hairdresser opened the place in Haddonfield. Later, she spent many, many years working (behind the scenes) at Channel 6 TV.”
After Yingling passed away, Cohn began to wonder “how much she wrote that we didn’t get to see” and started playing with the idea of “somehow publishing her poems.”
“As kids, we were aware that she wrote poetry, but as far as I know, she just wrote for fun … never submitted anything anywhere,” she said. “As my oldest brother put it, she was very bright, but she didn’t have opportunity. Her father passed when she was 12, and she was put into an orphanage. Her siblings, too, but they were all split up. She didn’t complain, though. She said the best gift her father ever gave her was the excellent education she got at Nazareth Academy, and right out of high school, she went to work for The Philadelphia Inquirer as a statistician.”
Following Yingling’s death, Cohn continued overseeing back-of-house details at husband Jim’s “Mid-Atlantic Events” magazine. Daughters Jess and Jenna, who had grown up listening to their grandmother’s poems, were aware Cohn dreamed of publishing them. But it wasn’t until 2018 when Jess — who had written and self-published a novel when she was a sophomore at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, studied creative writing in college and become an acquisitions editor at Mascot Books Publishing — suggested reimagining each poem as the storyline in an illustrated children’s book that her “dream” took shape.
“That’s brilliant, I thought,” Cohn said. “Jess said we have a whole team here (at Mascot), illustrators, everything you’d need. It was like a lightbulb went off. So, that’s how it all started.”
First up, “The Story of The Can’t That Could” (released in 2019), followed by “The Story of The Curious Elf” (2021). A third book, based on Yingling’s “Nature’s Artist” is in the works. Since their publication, Cohn has conducted a number of well-received readings at area elementary schools, and both books have gained traction with young readers.
This spring, Yingling’s creative achievements inspired Cohn to create a local writers’ support group to “share ideas of creative ways to market our books” and keep abreast of marketing opportunities like Discover Conshohocken’s recent Fayette Street book signing event. The Book Authors of Southeastern PA held its first meeting on April 14, and Cohn believes turnout bodes well for its future.
“We had 18 authors in attendance, (and) there was a great buzz and excitement among the group for coming together,” she said. “Currently, we’re collecting everybody’s bios, head shots, photos of their book covers and social media links to put on a website (with) links to each author’s individual website. We have also created a private Facebook page just for the writers, so that we can share ideas, and soon we will create a (public) Facebook page.”
The group includes 26 members with “several genres of books” represented and plans “to expand our membership in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia (counties).”
How might poet Joan Yingling have reacted to all of this?
“I think she would be very humbled,” Cohn said. “I don’t think she ever thought she was good enough. Mom started all this, and I wish she had seen it come to fruition. The first time I drove to a school to do a visit with the kids, a second grade class, I kind of lost it on the way over there. I felt like she was with me … in the passenger seat. She never would have thought to do any of it, but she so would have loved it.
“She probably would have squelched the whole idea but, then, given me permission to do it. Reluctantly. And, then, I think she would have been totally surprised to see how well-received it’s all been and loved to have been around the little kids to share the stories with.”
Additional details are available via email to bookauthorssoutheasternpa@gmail.com.
