In May 2014, two months before Dad died, my parents joined me as I presented a talk at OHSU on behalf of Oregon’s Safety Break for our Institute’s science seminar. It was a day to advocate for workplace safety, and I created a slide deck with images purchased from John Klatt, founder of Old Oregon Photos. These days, with Klatt’s passing, the photos are hosted through the Willamette Falls and Landings Heritage Area Coalition, of which Russ is current president. Oh how things come around…but that’s another story.

I didn’t know it then, but within a few months I would undertake the writing of My Music Man, and sometime after that begin this blog with the title Musings About Life in Oregon, beginning with a story about baseball. As I get closer to releasing A Map of Her Own next month, I do feel a bit of loss not to be able to share the book in person with our parents. Yes they’ve both been gone from this earth several to many years now; and still, I think about them often as we do with those we love. My wanting to share is not about making them proud. I may be unusual to have been a child, both when young and as an adult, who always felt supported by my parents. Though, yes, a few of those years have been rewritten in my own later growth and Dad’s recovery.

No, what I’d like to share with them is what comes through in my writing: compassion and humanity, gratefulness and the power of human connection. Too, my own appreciation of how their abilities and commitment to write and read gave me (and my brothers) powerful stepping stools to enjoy and be confident with both. While Dad’s death inspired my first book, Mom was the first to hear aloud my first two books, attend book launch parties, and was there when I signed the contract for my third. Too, I’d love to talk literature and authoring with my grandfather, Daddy Dick. While we shared our love of music when I was a child, I don’t remember discussions about books, even though we both always had our noses in them. (So far), I’m the only of his seven grandchildren to publish a book: he, Richard Gill Montgomery, Sr., the author of The White-Headed Eagle, Young Northwest, and Pechuck.

Yes, I know my parents are with me somehow in the spirit that continues and the parts of them I carry onward, but that doesn’t prevent these bits of lingering sorrow. Like in sharing this beautiful book cover. I hear Mom agree that it’s beautiful. Dad would say, “Darling, you hit it out of the park!”

And so to my friends and followers still on earth, I hope you are able to join me at an upcoming event. While I still hope to get something at the coast and near Camas, this is what’s on the books so far.

And just to be clear IH friends, A MAP OF HER OWN can only be pre-ordered at PNS-AIHA, but I’ll have my other books available.

Whew! See you around?

Learn more about A Map of Her Own.