Cherry Ames, Cat Granny Nurse

In February, my dear friend Xavier was struck by a car while bicycling through his hometown of Lyon. He broke his leg and ankle in 3 places. It was the type of break that the bone protrudes through the skin. That’s when I stop listening to him, so you can stick with me now.

I wanted to visit him to help take care of him and things, but my French is so poor, I’d have been a burden and not a help (I helped in other ways, keep visiting the blog to learn more!). Instead I sent him two Cherry Ames books so he would “get” this illustration.

Cherry Ames was the Nancy Drew-esque heroine who was invented to encourage girls to become interested in a nursing career during World War II. As the writing team grew more desperate for story to keep the job-hopping Cherry busy, the titles got better and better, from Cherry Ames, Dude Ranch Nurse to Cherry Ames, Department Store Nurse.

Here, I took a photo of Xavier in his johnny, P-shopped an image of Cherry behind him, found a similar font to the original jacket covers, and mimicked the layouts to create this image, “Cherry Ames, Cat Granny Nurse.”

You see, Xavier is an old lady at heart, with his love of tea, teapots, cats, and old ladies themselves. Jeff refers to him in a way we would say “cat lady” but the translation from French is “cat granny.”