With so much happening during the last week of March ending with the observance of Easter, I saved my planned post for this week. So, today, I wish a belated Happy Birthday to Harriet White Fisher who would’ve turned 163 last Sunday, March 31st!

Harriet White Fisher, was a widowed New Jersey Industrialist who in July 1909 loaded up her state-of-the-art Locomobile and bravely set out to the most remote regions of the world accompanied by her driver/mechanic, Italian-born personal attendant, British butler and beloved dog and mascot, Honk Honk described as a Bull Terrier. 

In 2014, I became her official biographer with the writing of Around the World in 1909: Harriet White Fisher and Her Locomobile (American History Press). I happened upon Harriet’s story while researching another automotive pioneer, Alice Huyler Ramsey, a native of my hometown of Hackensack, NJ who in 1910 became the first woman to drive across the United States with some female co-pilots. 

The writing of Around the World in 1909 represents a very happy time for me. The research was exhausting, yet intriguing, and I met some cool folks along the way including Rebecca Urban, the grand daughter of Harold Brooks, Harriet’s driver. Becky’s generous input and access to a treasure trove of information and items acquired during that revolutionary road trip were essential.

Upon becoming widowed, Harriet took on the running of her late husband’s anvil business and under her management, made it more productive than ever despite the male resistance of her employees and societal norms. After seven years, however, she decided she needed to get away, and that she did. Her trek spanned over a year and covered five continents at a time most women did not dare to drive or stray from the home front. She valued her loyal travel companions, and as a lover of animals, added a few more to her passenger list along the way!

There are times when I ask myself, “What would Harriet do?” when I’ve faced some monumental decisions left solely to me. I recall returning to my home in Georgia the day that Rich passed and standing in the driveway seeing my “new life” before me, dreading to make that “First Entrance Alone” into a home, and a world that had so drastically changed in just the course of a few weeks. It’s a moment I will never forget.

This April marks the two and a half year point of my Widowed Journey. It’s an emotional road trip with no definitive end, but with that understanding, I can like Harriet did, trust in my human and canine companions to make the road a little easier to navigate.

Even the world Locomobile is inspiring to me. “Loco” motion is defined as the directional movement, or the ability to move from one place to another. And although this is indicative of physical movement, it can also be applied to emotional movement as well.

For those who’ve just lost a significant other, partner or spouse and those that struggle even years later, understand your grief journey is not linear. Some days, weeks, and months will be easier to get through than others and even when you begin new “chapters” in your lives, those around you need to accept and understand this. If they don’t, just take a trip – if you can – even if it’s just for a few hours or days, to clear your head and figure things out on your own terms and create your own agenda. You did not choose to find yourself in “this place at this time” and are doing your best (or not) to reroute your “trip” without a map. 

And if you can hit the road, always try to bring along a dog or two.

Here’s to you Harriet, still inspiring so many decades later.