We All Must Walk Our Own Road...

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Ghellow Road


A literary diary of 
a young girl's 
journey


By T. H. Waters


There's no doubt that we each must walk our own life roads. For many, the roads run parallel to those walked by our family, our peers and while unique, we never learn the full story of that journey. The road traveled by T. H. Waters was not similar to ours. "Compelled to write this book based upon the unique experiences of her youth, she is grateful for the privilege of finally being able to live out loud." (p. 291)


Ghellow Road is Theresa's story, written in novel form. It flows from the time she was a child, happy with her mother and father and older brother. Her father was a teacher at a local school and spent much time with his children, sharing and exploring.

She was 5 when the first trauma occurred--finding her mother sobbing, her mother starting to withdraw from the family and their activities, spending most of her time in bed. However, when her mother needed to be hospitalized, it started a change of life for the entire family.

For a few times when her mother went to the hospital, her father's mother came to stay with them and take care that the children's life remain fairly stable. But a time came when that wasn't possible and both children were placed in foster care--the worst kind--where the parents were in it for the money and did little to actually care for the children.

Even when her mother came home, she was not the same woman. In fact, she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and would never be the same again. "My mother...forever the delicate rose of spring, the youthful flower caught in a late, unexpected frost before she ever had the chance to unfurl her velvety petals and become the beauty she was meant to be. She remained eternally lost in the prison of her own mind...she remained eternally lost to me." (p. 263)

Fortunately for a number of years, their father was able to hold the family together. But then he lost his job, taking any job he could find to keep them going, but he also became despondent. He started spending all his time in the basement, forbidding anybody to invade the area where he said he was building a boat. Theresa one day coaxed her brother to go see the boat while their father was out. When he came back unexpectedly, Theresa childishly blamed their invasion on her brother. He was beaten horribly and soon left home, never to return.

And then Theresa's father committed suicide..."It is disturbing how the emotion from a single event, frozen in time, can conquer you so completely. It gnaws at your innards like a starved coyote, always wanting more than you have to give. We all became victims of Daddy's assault upon himself that day... A crucial piece of myself remained back in the bloody aftermath...slashing a wound that the hands of time would never be able to mend..." (P. 114)

And thereafter began a nomadic life for Theresa as she was shuffled from family to family or to friends' homes, rarely to have a location she could call her "home."

Readers will see a young woman who grew strong, yet defiant. One who was brave, yet afraid of what was going to happen next. Her story takes us through those traumatic teen years where finding and having friends to her meant the only family environments in which she was welcomed. Her mother had moved and left one grandmother behind, moving to live with and then near her parents. While her grandfather was wonderful, her new grandmother was not interested in developing a loving relationship with Theresa... And then her mother started dating and finally remarried. But that did not result in a new, loving home...

T. H. Waters writes her losses, her life, in beautiful words that compell readers to continue reading. However, this is not a heartwarming story even though there are parts that will touch your heart. This is a story of the spirit of children, of hope, of endurance... There is much you can learn from Ghellow Road if you open your heart and mind. Perhaps the most important being "to live out loud..." Highly recommended.

Book Received
from Author


GABixlerReviews

Related articles

• A Few Words on Ghellow Road by T.H. Waters (dragonflyy419.wordpress.com)

Review: See Australia Through Eyes of Cynthia Clampitt!

Waltzing Australia
By Cynthia Clampitt
BookSurge
ISBN: 1419663062
497 Pages

“As I sped over the soft earth, the wind in my face, the colors crowding in around me, I felt fleeter and freer than I can ever remember. Such is the liberating quality of joy.”

You could read Waltzing Australia by Cynthia Clampitt and thoroughly enjoy a great travel book. This highly recommended journal is full of the history, the beauty and the mystery of Australia. In fact, if you suffer from occasional wanderlust, you should keep this book on your permanent library shelf so that you can escape into the various parts of Australia whenever you wish! I personally would visit Tasmania more often since Cynthia immediately captured me through the stories of her travels there.

But if I told you only about traveling through Australia, you would not be prepared and perhaps not realize until it is later in the book, that there is a very personal story being told. It’s about one of our present-day female role models we should share with our children. It’s about a gutsy woman who, while being in a successful corporate career realized that it was not what she wanted for her life. She wanted a writing career. Leaving the security of her corporate role, she first chose to fulfill a lifetime dream. She spent six months touring Australia!

There is little that Cynthia writes about herself, but when she does add those personal comments, such as the one quoted above, I urge you to stop and consider those words about your own life—Can we say that we experience “the liberating quality of joy”? Let your heart decide whether Cynthia has a special message for you that will run throughout this book... If so, then sit back and enjoy waltzing along with Cynthia as she tests her limits, especially physically, and in many other ways!

“My spirit seemed to vibrate...in sympathetic response to...innocence, the fierceness, the solitude...I studied them a while longer, smiled...”

This lengthy journey covers approximately 20,000 miles as Cynthia toured Australia. The book has been easily divided into parts of the country so that you can hone in on that section if you are fortunate to have a few weeks to travel to a specific spot. It is written in a travel diary format that provides broad strokes as well as daily activities of events. There will be information about the history of the location being traveled, notes on wildlife as well as the land and water displays. To give you a taste, I’ll share with you just some of the details that show the variety of information and that were especially interesting to me:

· Nearly everybody knows the old song about the Kookaburra. It is the largest member of the kingfisher family and is best known for its rollicking “laughter.”

· Wages were once paid in “rum.”

· “Beyond words” can only be used to describe the beauty of the rainforest.

· Everything, including cars, the weather, life...is referred to as “she.”

· The riverboat postman on Hawkesbury River carries not only mail, but food, medicine and even people!

· Captain Cook traveled along the coast naming bays, islands and landmarks. He “peacefully changed the map of the world more than any other single man....”

· Rub a large stone...in the fertility cave to become pregnant, according to Aboriginal legend!

· The Stirling Bells grow nowhere else in the world other than the Stirling Ranges; each of the seven varieties has its own mountain, growing nowhere else in the ranges!

· Tasmania’s Wallabies are only 2 to 3 feet and they grasp fingers to eat out of your hand.

· Wombats have short necks, making it impossible to look up, so they beg for food by trotting up and staring at your ankles.

· Tasmanian devils owe their names and reputations to the insanely wild screaming/choking/snarling/roaring sounds they make for normal conversation!

· Sydney’s opera house cost $102M, raised mostly through lotteries.

With that last I must stop. There seems to be one overlying theme about Australia that is readily apparent. People are happy, friendly and proud of their country. People open their homes to strangers. When a car or bus is broken down, everybody stops to help. I love the Australia that I read about in Waltzing Australia by Cynthia Clampitt. I was 18 when I, too, thought of traveling to that country. If I never get to, though, Cynthia has given me a taste of that “heaven” that I missed. Perhaps you, too, have a dream...

“I wondered again, as I have wondered before, why this place moves me so. I am drawn to the remoteness, to the vigor, the fierceness...and its spirit whispers to my spirit...”


G. A. Bixler

Review: Interested in Writing? Keeping A Diary May Help!

No Ordinary Lives:
Four 19th Century Teenage Diaries
Branden Books
ISBN: 9780828321587
192 Pages

Do you keep a diary, a journal? Do you have children or teenagers who enjoy writing and may be encouraged through a gift showing others who wrote about their daily activities? No Ordinary Lives by Marilyn W. Seguin gives you that opportunity!

In addition to basic information about writing and keeping a diary, there are tips for locating available diaries and an extensive list of resources, both in written form and online.

The four diaries included in No Ordinary Lives, were written in the 1800s and are all from children and teenagers from Maine, including a diary from Nat Hathorne who later called himself Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Interestingly, there is some question as to whether Hathorne’s diary was “faked” by somebody else, which, in itself, is a sad commentary, but also illustrative of the potential value of documents written while they were young, by those who later become famous. If the diary is real, and I choose to believe it is, then it records probably the earliest “story” written by Hawthorne. It is an endearing, silly little story about having a conversation with a horse who is very hungry, had no breakfast, but had to stand waiting while they were grinding the corn he had pulled to town! Of course, Nat crept in and took some of the corn and gave it to the horse! Later, after Nat had done even more to help, he begins to feel guilty and worry about being caught for helping the poor animal.

One of the differences between Nat’s diary and that of Ethel Godfrey was that Nat wrote about events and activities that occurred in his area, while Ethel had chosen to write only about her personal life. Of course, this is a major decision issue for diarists and obviously affects what the individual may decide to record.

Ethel was writing her diary in her mid-teens and describes her interpersonal relationships with friends with whom she goes to school. One point that perhaps highlighted a difference in school relationships at that time was that the children got together to study. I think, although I could be wrong, that as time passed, and as children became more involved with different activities, that this faded as a routine activity, yet it seemed from this diary that it helped cement friendships between boys and girls. Sad to have lost that from the past.

The other two diaries, although written by individuals who were 13 and 19, are very similar in style. They are written as a log of daily activities, some of which include personal comments while others merely state what occurred daily. The content though is entirely different!

The first book, written by a 13-year-old boy who, after being taken to live with the Shaker community when his parents were not able to support the children, chose not to leave even though his parents begged him to return home. The diary covers daily work activities performed by this young man and certainly does not appear to in any way be similar to the lives of today’s children. Yet the young boy had found a home, a faith, that was meaningful to him and there are many references where he would speak during their religious services.

The last book was written by the daughter of a sea captain who was forced to travel with her parents as they traveled around the southern end of South America and on to the west coast. Although there are times of happiness, there is much loneliness and boredom shared in her diary. One point mentioned only by the book’s author was that she later fell in love with a captain! I wonder if she then took her place onboard as the Captain’s wife and continued to sail the seas?

Coincidentally, I had just finished reading and reviewing Waltzing Australia by Cynthia Clampitt, who recently published her nearly 500-page diary she wrote to document her tour of Australia. Obviously made me wonder whether our sea captain’s daughter grew to love her life and continued to write and even publish the stories about her time sailing. I add this note also to show that as one of today’s writers, Cynthia certainly found a perfect way to use the diary form—to log her activities as she traveled, with personal notes included!

Marilyn Weymouth Seguin, by giving the title No Ordinary Lives to her book, highlights that diaries are personal—they provide the opportunity to write about our innermost thoughts, to be seen only by ourselves. Or, they may be used to provide an intimate look at the lives we have led for our family and those who study historical times in an intimate fashion.

Myself, I would not be willing to share my diary with anybody because I would tend to write about my own personal life. What about you, would you share your life with another through your diary? If you are not sure, but are thinking about keeping a diary, then I highly recommend No Ordinary Lives to you—it may be just what you needed to help you get started!

G. A. Bixler

New Book Out - Waltzing Australia by Cynthia Clampitt!

Book Title: Waltzing Australia
Author: Cynthia Clampitt
ISBN: 978-1-4196-6306-2
508 pages

Available at Amazon.com and through Borders and other booksellers.





Would a sensible, successful woman in her mid-30s walk away from money, security, career just to make a dream come true? Absolutely!

Cynthia Clampitt wanted to write—and she wanted to get as far away as she could from the temptation to rejoin the corporate world. Australia was a lifelong interest, and it seemed to be the best, and farthest, place to start over.

Clampitt circled and crossed the continent, covering nearly 20,000 miles, many of them rugged. The child of that journey is the book Waltzing Australia, a journal that recounts six months of joy and adventure. It is a story about change and finding out who you are. But above all, it is about Australia: the history, legends and art, both European and Aboriginal; the beauty, the challenge, the people, the land.

Best-selling author Richard Lederer wrote of Waltzing Australia, “Cynthia Clampitt’s luminous chronicle of her love affair with Australia resonates to the heart’s deep core.” Others have compared her to Annie Dillard and Bill Bryson.

Aussie expert Barb Mackenzie wrote, “[Cynthia] paints vivid pictures of people, places and adventures. I can feel the sun, hear the crush of the bush beneath my feet and smell the salt of the sea. I know I will go back again to Australia but I can revisit anytime just by picking up Waltzing Australia and reading a few pages.”

Author/reviewer Helen Gallagher wrote, “Cynthia Clampitt surprises us with a writing talent and story-telling technique that is tough to master, yet she is consistently compelling to read.”

Waltzing Australia will encourage those who dream, as well as those who travel. It will delight those who know Australia and enchant those who do not. Readers will come to know Australia intimately, as the author leads them across the often-surprising landscape.

Australia fascinates almost everyone. Starting over and women’s adventures are also perennially hot topics. Waltzing Australia gives you all three. For Clampitt, sharing the adventure with others is part of the dream.

Click the article title to visit the Walzing Australia blog!



If you would like more information about the book or author, or to schedule an interview, slide show, or book signing, please contact Cynthia Clampitt at (847) 537-7915 or caclampitt@att.net.