If there’s one thing Nancy Blackwell Bourne ’62 has always been bad at, it’s being good at only one thing. Writing her first book at the age of 80 with her right hand and illustrating it with the left is merely the most recent example.

“When I was young, I was left-handed totally, and when I got to the third grade the teacher stood at the blackboard, put her piece of chalk in her right hand, and said to everybody ‘pick up your pencil in this hand.’ And I did,” Bourne said. “So with my right hand I write, but everything else I do with my left hand.”

In June, Bourne self-published “Majelica’s Magical Moment,” a children’s picture book written in rhyme and illustrated with 32 images she painted. Majelica is a baby elephant who has been left behind by her family at a watering hole, and her stressful time trying to fit in with other animals and elephants was inspired by a story her son, David, told after he went on a safari in South Africa in 1998.

Nancy Blackwell Bourne ’62.

“He came back and said, ‘Mom, there was a little elephant that was left at the watering hole, and it was just so sad to watch this little thing go up to other animals,’” Bourne said. “Later on, her family came back, and everybody who was watching was so happy to see them reunited. I thought, ‘You know, I would just love to write a story about