Today, I welcome fellow Indie Chick Melissa Smith who shares her inspiring story from Indie Chicks: 25 Independent Women, 25 Personal Stories. Take it away, Melissa!
Writing Out the Grief
Melissa A. Smith
A common question people ask a writer is what made
them decide to sit down and start writing in the first place. For me, it was
grief.
While in high school, I wrote. I had taken journalism
and the teacher loved my writings. Two pieces of my work had been published in
two different school publications. I was also asked to join the staff for the
school paper, but declined. I just didn’t like writing the things wanted for a
paper. I liked creating stories to take you places. Inventing new worlds and
people to live in them. I stopped writing after getting out of school and
didn’t start again for several long years.
December 2008 had started like any other December
before it. I was out shopping for those perfect gifts for each member of my
family,
and loving every minute of it. By my side was my
shopping partner. My mom. My best friend. This year was a little different, as
we made our rounds trying to get most of her shopping done earlier than her
normal pace of slow (she was known to be out shopping as late as Christmas
Eve), because she was set to have her final knee replacement surgery on the 19
th.
That day was also the last day of work I had before school let out for
Christmas Break.
We had almost done everything she’d wanted to have
done, done. But there were still a few things to gather, like stocking stuffers
and things of that nature. She went in for her surgery and everything went great!
The last time she’d been in the hospital, for the first knee 6 months prior,
she’d contracted hospital-acquired pneumonia. Her doctor, wanting her to be healthy for
the rigorous knee therapy that follows two days after surgery, released her the
following day. The 20th.
Wanting to forgo giving you all the details, I received a phone call
early on the 21st. A phone call no one wants to get. My father,
who’d awoken to find his partner for the past 34 years gone, couldn’t make that
call. The responding police officer had to do it for him. Pneumonia had taken
her from us.
So started my decent into grief.
We were supposed to do some shopping before I took her to physical
therapy that day. We were supposed to do a lot of things during my break,
because she too had it off for recovery.
Instead, I had to help my dad organize a funeral.
During the year and a half that followed, I read over
230 books. All while working full time and tending to a family.
It was the start of summer vacation in 2010 when I’d
run out of books to read. I dove into spending time with my boys and vegging at
the pool daily. I thought it had been long enough, and maybe the grief wouldn’t
be so sharp. I was wrong. Without having someplace for my mind to wander, to
live in, I was a mess of tears.
It was then I’d woke up in the middle of the night, leaving
a dream that made my brain buzz. I tried to shake it off, leave it where I
found it. In my dreams. But it wanted to be let out. So I sat down in secret
and started writing.
At first when my family noticed my switch from books
to the computer and all my constant typing, they asked what I was doing. I
lied. I told them I was writing to my sister who lives in Texas. At first they
bought it, but as the typing went on, they were puzzled as to why I didn’t just
call her and talk to her. Again, I lied. But this time I said she’d asked me to
write down some things about our mom.
While they still were puzzled by all the clicking
going on at the keyboard, they left me alone.
While writing started out as therapy for a grieving
soul, it is now something I must do to keep all the exciting characters quiet.
I love it! I only wish it could have developed without such dark beginnings,
but nonetheless, my mother would be proud.
******
This is one story from
Indie Chicks: 25
Women 25 Personal Stories available on
Amazon and
Barnes
& Noble
for the wonderfully low price of Free! To
read all of the stories, grab your copy today!
Also included are sneak peeks into 25
great novels!
My young adult paranormal romance, Cloud
Nine is one of the novels featured.
Want to find out more about Melissa and
her books?
We were supposed to do some shopping before I took her to physical
therapy that day. We were supposed to do a lot of things during my break,
because she too had it off for recovery.
It was then I’d woke up in the middle of the night, leaving
a dream that made my brain buzz. I tried to shake it off, leave it where I
found it. In my dreams. But it wanted to be let out. So I sat down in secret
and started writing.
