The mandate for Cries of the Panther on Mockingbird Hill, (2020) was to correct a cousin’s published false claim that I accused my father of child sexual abuse. Determined to set the record straight, I broke the cultural code of silence. Writing became a source of deep healing, reconciliation with myself, with others, and eventually with my hometown. It also launched a serious avocation after retiring from my long career as a Music Educator.
Once I found that I finally felt safe in my hometown, I sold my house in Houston, bought a house in DeLand, Florida, and moved home within three months after making the decision.
Welcome Home Me launched in September, 2023. In it, I recall many of the stories I experienced while living in seven different states where I established my career, pursued and completed graduate work, and reclaimed the childhood and adolescence that had been thwarted so long ago. I currently am working on my third book, which has the working title, “They Came In Threes: Degrees, Divorces, and Deaths.”
After a cousin published a false claim that Sue accused her father of sexual abuse, she set the record straight while tracing much of her family’s history and her journey to recovery in
Cries of the Panther on Mockingbird Hill.
Once Sue discovered that her hometown
no longer triggered the painful re-living of
trauma, she reclaimed DeLand, Florida
after being away for over 50 years. She
recalls stories she lived and traces the
pilgrimage that led her home in
Welcome Home Me.
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