The power of remembering

A place to write. Gentle breezes and treetop view from my cottage writing space on Big Tancook Island, N.S.

Well here it is. After years of searching and the last few scribbling and revising, we're about to launch this real thing: my story of growing up in South America within the embrace of my mother’s large, energetic family and the long, disquieting search for my father and his parents, the people I never knew.

What a pleasure, recalling those childish tropical adventures. And what a struggle, as my father’s history came into view, like walking along a dark street where the overhead lights flicker on and off, never fully illuminating the road ahead.

And now my precious cargo will soon be out there in full view -- my book, To Linger With You: a memoir of sunshine and longing (Stonehewer Books). I know what it means now when people say "I couldn't have done it without..." There are so many people, but I want to single out the ones who kept me going: George Galt at Stonehewer Books for understanding my story, my friend and editor Mark Abley for many, many words of advice along the way and my husband Mark Swift, whose encouragement was gentle and unwavering.

Sitting with these stories, poring over photos and papers, has been a powerful experience. Before the official publication date of September 15, I want to spend a little time examining some of the insights I’ve glimpsed about belonging and displacement, memory and forgetting, colonialism and country, childhood loss and awakening, about a tropical life and a Jewish past.