Catherine Mede describes herself as a mother, writer, gardener,
proofreader, crafter, whip maker, yoga practitioner, walker, cycler, and a lover
of life and self. Today she joins us to discuss how writing helped her cope
with a really awful year.
A Year of Frustrations
If I wanted to be a
negative person, I could say my life is a series of frustrations. 2016
was a classic example. After a couple of months of rather twisted and
nasty conversations, I ended my marriage. Turns out my husband wanted to
end our relationship, but didn’t want to look like “the bad guy”...
So my son and I got into
the whole “just us” routine and really enjoyed the peace and tranquility of our
home, when we received news we really didn’t want to hear. My stepdad, who had
beaten cancer years earlier, had it back, in a more aggressive form because of
the type of treatment he had initially. Only 5% of those who had that type of
treatment developed this aggressive cancer.
By May I was starting to
think – why me? Why now? I love my poppa, he is closer to me than
my own father. He was the role model of a gentleman and husband for my
son who was constantly staying at my Mum’s and Poppa’s because he liked hanging
out with Poppa.
In July, Poppa lost the
battle, and died. It was a sad and hard time for our family, because we
were still getting our heads around the fact that he was sick when he was taken
from us. It happened way too fast.
In August, my son’s
beloved cat was killed by a car. No fault of the driver, the silly cat
took fright at a dog barking and ran straight out in front of the guy, who was
quite traumatized by it. She was such a beautiful natured cat and had
chosen to live with us because she didn’t like the two dogs, three kids and
four cats that lived in her own home. We only had one cat and one child, so it
was peaceful at our place.
I had to dig a hole and
bury her, because I couldn’t get hold of my ex. The ground at our place
is old riverbed, so it is full of rocks. I was crying so hard because I
just couldn’t get down deep enough. The neighbors took pity on me and
came to help.
While all of this was
going on, I was suffering from depression and struggling to find my feet as far
as my mental health was concerned.
I could have spent most
of last year focused on all the bad things that had happened in my life, but
instead, I chose to focus on the good things:
•
The peace and quiet in
our house after my ex left;
•
the love and compassion shown
to me and my son by my poppa for the few short years that we had known him
•
and the happiness poppa had
because my mental health was improving after I left my ex;
•
the love and affection from a
cat that chose to live with us rather than her owners.
And all this became
fodder for a book, Finding Amy
Archer. A story about a woman who loses her husband, best friend, all
the while her son is heading off to university, all in a short period of
time. It is based more on my emotional experiences, rather than on actual
events, but it was rather cathartic to write this story. I was able to
express myself a lot in this character, to show how I dealt with most of the
events that took place in my “year from hell.”
My only frustration
these days, is finding enough time in the day to do all the fun things I want
to do – like write, craft, paint...
Finding Amy Archer
Amy Morgan’s world is
about to come to a crashing halt. Her son is off to university, her
husband is having an affair, and her best friend is dying. What is a girl
to do?
Amy is struggling to
find her feet in her ever collapsing world. But one thing is abundantly clear,
she now has the time to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her
life.
But who is Amy Morgan?
What happened to her ideals and life? Amy only knows who she was as so
goes back to her family name, Archer. But what does she like? What are her passions?
Follow Amy Archer on her
path of discovery, learning to love herself and finding her way in a new world
without her husband, best friend or her son.
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