Stories and the Power They Lend in Trying Times

I hadn’t flown across the country since right before Covid-19 “shutdown.” You see, I got a call that my Dad was entering hospice and I needed to come see him as soon as possible. After seeing him, he passed that night. Now about fourteen months later, I flew back to see my 84 year-old mother, who’s been showing growing signs of dementia. Speaking to her on the phone has been a challenge.

Her dementia has grown so bad she has forgotten my Dad’s passed. She told me she’s angry at him for not coming home. That was hard, but she was so delighted to see me. My spending time with her meant everything to her. But what to say to someone whose memory is so poor?

I told her stories. Stories of how when my Dad first saw her at a singles dance he knew he was going to marry her. Stories about how her parents met through the love letters my grandfather wrote for my grandmother’s fiancé, who didn’t speak English. Stories about finding my grandmother’s letters back to my grandfather after the cancelled wedding before the two of them married six months later.

Mom laughed at stories I told her she’d forgotten. She loved me telling her those stories and more, even when she asked if I had a brother, uncertain who I was at times.

When Mom took one of her many daily naps in her Assisted Living apartment, I took out my laptop and wrote as I had at the airports I found myself at after my original flight was cancelled and rescheduled with an almost five hour layover in Chicago. I dealt with the fact this wasn’t going to be like the trips to see my parents I’d had before Dad died by writing more of the first draft of Hunting Bigfoot, the sequel to my latest released book, Bigfoot is Not Your Friend.

I’ve always somehow known that stories have a power of their own. Stories always whisked me away from what troubled me at the time. So, I loved reading and the worlds they showed me—even took me. Worlds of dragons, spaceships, mysteries, ghosts, and finding treasures.

Mom’s smile, her asking how I even knew the stories I was telling had us conversing and took some of the sting out her surprise at our visiting Dad’s grave for the unveiling of his headstone. She’s already forgotten that and perhaps that’s a blessing.

I’m now about 50% through the first draft of the novel and have fleshed out a few more ideas on the plot. I continued to work on the story during the flight delays as I returned home, building on both the storyline from my prequel novella, Apocalypse Knot and Bigfoot Is Not Your Friend, which, by-the-way, appears in the promo, Book Gathering Giveaway.

If you are interested in other giveaways of stories that can take you away to other places and worlds, Grounding a Mockingbird, prequel to Lessers Not Losers, is featured in the group promo, Witch's Brew. Lessers Not Losers is featured in Kindle Unlimited Young Adult Reads.

The Dragon's Curse, prequel to my Highmage’s Plight and Hands of the Highmage series, is featured in the The Fantastic Collection.

Last Knight, prequel to Knight of the Broken Table, is featured in the group promo Sci-Fi & Space Opera Giveaway. Knight of the Broken Table is featured in the Summer Sci Fi in Kindle Unlimited promo and on sale in Dragonriders & Shapeshifters Under $5.

And, if you are interested in other bargains in these genres, check out Sci-Fi & Fantasy Bargains.

D.H.