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Michelle Linn-Gust's Blog – August 2011 Archive (4)

Being There... When We Can't

I have been living away from my family for seventeen years as of this month. I had wanted to leave my home state of Illinois since I was thirteen and finally managed it (thanks to graduate school) in 1994 when I moved to New Mexico. I missed weddings and baptisms. While funerals were arranged based on when I could make it into town, it didn’t occur to me in my twenties, or in my thirties (as I exit them in just a few short months), that being so far away could be a detriment to…

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Added by Michelle Linn-Gust on August 29, 2011 at 1:30pm — 1 Comment

Suicide: Finding Hope - A New Website

While I believe there is a synchronicity to everything that happens, I realize that most of the time we don’t understand it while we’re standing in the thick of it. Such was the case when I met Cheryl, a fellow survivor who lost both her husband and son to suicide, who came to me with a proposal to help her create a comprehensive website on suicide and mental illness.

What I didn’t realize at the time,…

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Added by Michelle Linn-Gust on August 16, 2011 at 9:00am — 2 Comments

The Rosary Beads

If you’ve read my first novel, The Australian Pen Pal, you know that the main character, Rachel, stumbles on a cathedral in Sydney, Australia, and buys a rosary in the gift shop. What few people know is that Rachel’s experience is based on my own foray into a cathedral two years ago when I last traveled Down Under. (To find out why the rosary is significant, you’ll have to read the book!) After the trip, the rosary sat on my desk until this past spring when I thought it was time to…

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Added by Michelle Linn-Gust on August 8, 2011 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Why don’t I remember the conversations?

My dad holds me while Uncle Hank, right,

holds my cousin Sheri. St. Joe, Michigan, 1973.

Often after a loss in my life, I find myself digging through my mental archives trying to remember conversations and experiences with the person who just died. And many times I am disappointed at how little I remember. I can’t remember the many discussions…

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Added by Michelle Linn-Gust on August 1, 2011 at 10:30am — 2 Comments