Grief is an emotion that must be fully experienced in order to write authentically about it. Years after grieving for the loss of her son, Joan Donaldson realized that she was tapping into that experience to write her historical fiction, Ae Fond Kiss. It is a story about sorrow, but also about the healing that comes from building community and, finally, making changes that can open the door to love.
“It will be 10 years ago next month that our son, who had served in the Army and had been deployed to Afghanistan, came home with PTSD and severe depression,” Donaldson says. “I give the Army a certain amount of credit for trying to help him, but it did not work. He took his life on February 19th in 2015, leaving behind a widow and three young daughters. It’s one of those moments that you never think you will bury your child.”
Through the subsequent years of grieving and finding healing, Donaldson has put some of those life experiences into her writing. Ae Fond Wish is historical fiction, set in Rugby, Tennessee, telling the interweaving stories of Lizzie and William. Both are struggling with their own loss of loved ones.
“I realized while writing that was what I was doing—I put all my grief into my characters,” Donaldson says. “I knew that by writing it, by including it in other people’s lives, I could deal with it.”
Telling Lizzie’s story, Donaldson also writes about how her character finds her place in her community where people must depend on each other to survive.
“That’s a really important theme,” she says. Community connections help Lizzie redefine parts of herself she no longer likes. The two make a home in a utopian community based in agriculture, one that existed in Rugby many years ago as a social experiment with equality for all members.
Joan Donaldson’s book launch will take place on February 11, at 7 p.m., at the Fennville Public Library.
Listen to WMUK's Art Beat every Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 4:20 p.m.
