Visited by Spirits

Lucy Burdette: I have never considered myself to be someone who is visited by spirits of the great beyond. Maybe it’s that I don’t know how to listen for them. If you have read my Key West series, you will know that Miss Gloria has a part-time job in the Key West cemetery giving guided tours. In one of the scenes from my August book, A SCONE OF CONTENTION,  Miss Gloria is visited by spirits of her ancestors in Scotland; she definitely knows how to connect. 

Speaking of spirits, a most interesting thing happened during my sister Susan Cerulean’s book talk for the Friends of the Key West library. We chatted on zoom in front of 100 interested readers about her memoir “I have been assigned the single bird.” The book braids together two stories – her caregiving of our father during the last eight years of his life with Alzheimer’s, and her caregiving of the earth, particularly birds. She had just finished talking about how my father hated to be left out of anything and seemed to very much enjoy the idea of being the subject of her next book. Then she was asked a question about what people could do who are concerned about the planet. But at that moment, an alarm began to buzz. I knew it wasn’t something in my house, and she didn’t think it was hers. But after a few minutes, she left the screen and returned with my father’s old alarm clock, which had been in the pile going to the dump. Because it didn’t work! Have a listen to what happened next:

Honestly, we were quite flabbergasted about that event. The timing was too strange not to have been a message from our father.

Our good friend Pat Kennedy (who you may remember from various blogs written for us) sent us this note after the talk: “This gives me an awesome idea.  If you know me well you will remember how I hate to be left out of a party. So I’m programming my own alarm clock that goes off at party time and demand that my children include me and the clock in all future family gatherings – after I’ve moved on.”

So here’s the question Reds: do you feel you have a connection with people who have moved on from this life? Or if not, have you had a particular experience that makes you question your doubts?

Susan Cerulean's Single Bird

LUCY BURDETTE: I know I mentioned to you all a while back that my fabulous older sister, my Irish twin (11 months difference), would be launching a book in 2020. Well, yay! It's here and we get to host her. I HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED THE SINGLE BIRD is a memoir based on the years she spent caring for our father when he had dementia, and based on her devotion to caring for the natural world. It's a beautiful, thoughtful must-read book and I'm thrilled to welcome her...

SUSAN CERULEAN: One of the things that kept me going as a caregiver for my father during the years that he battled dementia were moments of unexpected kindness. A favorite encounter I remember was with a young nurse’s aide in my father’s assisted living facility, and that’s what I’d like to share with you today.

Afterward, I’d love to hear what kindnesses—expected and unexpected--have made the unbearable, bearable, in your own life.

Toward the end of my Dad's life, he became an unreliable narrator of his own life, and less able physically, than ever before. I had hired extra caregivers to be with him all day, every day of the week, whenever I couldn’t be with him myself. 

Still, I worried about the long stretch of hours, from 8 o’clock when our paid caregivers helped him to bed, until 8 in morning, when another returned. Other residents’ families whispered rumors of rough treatment at night; how was I to know if he was truly safe?
At 4 a.m. one morning, I was awakened by a nightmare in which my father was calling me and pleading for help. I slipped out of bed, pulled on my clothes, and drove the two miles to his residence. The facility’s massive front door was locked, so I sneaked through a low hedge of boxwood shrubbery, and let myself in through the kitchen. I hoped I wouldn't startle the staff. 

No one moved about the silent facility, but through Dad’s open door a triangle of light lit the hall. A young woman was making up his bed. She heard the door creak, and turned to face me. Her name tag read “Iclene.” She smiled at me, somehow unsurprised. 

“Your father’s bed was soaking wet so I got him up and changed him,” she said. “We check on them all night long.”

Dad was dressed in daytime clothes, resting in the recliner, awake and calm. Iclene bundled up the soiled sheets, and left the room. I crouched beside Dad’s chair, took his hand. “Iclene seems very kind,” I said. “How are you doing?” 

“Sue, ask her if there’s some food we could eat together for breakfast,” he said. 

I'd been wanting to meet Iclene. I’d been told she sang to Dad by the gas log fire in the living room, in the middle of the night sometimes, when he couldn’t sleep. I found her in the kitchen. She wore black plastic glasses, was very tall, and kept eye contact as we talked. 

While I unwrapped wheat bread to make toast, I asked her about herself. Iclene was 24 years old, a student of nursing at Tallahassee Community College, an employee at Dad’s facility, and a member of Bethel AME Missionary Church on Tennessee Street. “You'll find me there every Wednesday and Sunday night,” she said. 

The young woman stood very still, like a graceful forest animal, her hands folded together in front of her diaphragm, as if she were at that moment—perhaps in all moments--in prayer. And it was true.
“I pray for strength all the time,” she said. “I ask Him for strength. He gives me what I need.” 

The bread popped up in the toaster. Iclene reached in the industrial refrigerator for butter. 

“He got me this job,” she said, referring up to the ceiling, to God. So I know he'll give me the strength to do it.” I’d heard Iclene worked the 11-7 shift four nights a week. 

When I returned to Dad with his toast, he was dozing. I set the plate of food on a bedside table and slipped out the door. In the parking lot, a rim of light in the east caught me by surprise.

“Wheep,” called a great crested flycatcher from high in the pines.

As I drove home, I felt myself drop into peace. Confronted by overwhelming kindness, my fear for my father fell away.

Question: What kindnesses—expected and unexpected--have made the unbearable, bearable, in your own life?

--This essay is excerpted from I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird: A Daughter's Memoir by Susan Cerulean, published by the University of Georgia press and now available from your favorite independent bookseller.

Lucy again: We would love to have you attend our joint sisters event on August 9 at 5 pm, moderated by our own Red Hallie Ephron and sponsored by RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison CT. You will need to register here, but the event is free!


SUSAN CERULEAN is a writer, naturalist, and advocate who divides her time between Indian Pass and Tallahassee, Florida.  Her latest book, I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird: A Daughter’s Memoir (Georgia, 2020) will be released on August 1.  Sign up for her monthly newsletter at https://comingtopass.com/

You can also find her on Facebook and Instagram   

Are you reading??

LUCY BURDETTE: As you can see from my partial TBR pile, I have plenty of good books ahead of me. And it’s a fabulous season for Jungle Red books, by the way...Jenn’s PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA is out now, and next week we have Hank’s THE FIRST TO LIE, and Rhys’s THE LAST MRS. SUMMERS, and the following week, the paperback edition of Hallie’s CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, and my own THE KEY LIME CRIME. 

I’m definitely buying books, but my reading is slow as molasses. How about you all? Is the pandemic-that-will-not-end changing how you read? What can you recommend?

HALLIE EPHRON: I just finished Susan Cerulean’s (she’s Lucy’s sister) I HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED THE SINGLE BIRD, a beautiful, elegiac work which still haunts me. I’m in the middle of Jenn’s PARIS and loving it. Next up Hank’s FIRST TO LIE (did you see her Facebook post of boxes and boxes and boxes of books to be signed??) In my TBR pile, Carol Goodman’s THE SEA OF LOST GIRLS and Tara Westover’s EDUCATED and THE GLASS HOTEL by Emily St. John.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hallie, I read THE GLASS HOTEL last month and loved it. I’m still not sure I could tell you what it was about, but I couldn’t put it down. I got an early crack at Hank’s THE FIRST TO LIE (loved it!) and am re-reading Rhys’s Royal Spyness series before THE LAST MRS SUMMERS comes out. I love escaping to Lady Georgie’s world, and even her brother Binky’s dank castle sounds good right now, with the temps here in Maine at 90 degrees.

On my TBR pile: One of the big domestic suspense books of the summer, THE SAFE PLACE by Anna Downes. Also a political satire by Christopher Buckley (love his work) titled MAKE RUSSIA GREAT AGAIN - I’ll let you guess what that one’s about. The SF novel waiting in the wings is FINDER by Suzanne Palmer, about an interstellar repo man. The second book in the series, DRIVING THE DEEP, came out in June, and it looked very intriguing, but I’m one of those people who has to start at the beginning, so...

Definitely can recommend: THE CHILL by Scott Carson, a mystery/horror/supernatural thriller with great characters and a brilliant sense of place. As I was reading it, I thought, “This reminds me of Michael Koryta’s supernatural books.” The reason why, as I discovered after finishing? Carson is Koryta. He’s decided on a nom de plume to separate his ghost stories from his decidedly-grounded-in-real-life thrillers.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Here’s the photo..amazing, right? These are all for the Brenda Novak Book Club. Let’s see. Reading. I have my favorite Andrew Wilson’s I SAW HIM DIE, with Agatha Christie as the sleuth. I just adore his books--so clever!  The new Shari Lapena arrived, hurray, called THE END OF HER. I hope it’s as good as her others. Elly Griffiths’ THE LANTERN MEN is waiting for me too. Whoo hoo.  I adored CATHERINE HOUSE by Elisabeth Thomas--so weird and twisty! And truly, Rachel Howzell Hall is a rock star--her PI novel AND NOW SHE’S GONE is gripping and terrific.  Oh and my sister in First Chapter Fun--do you know it?--Hannah Mary McKinnon’s SISTER DEAR  is a fantastic book--so surprising! And more I cannot say. Rhys, Lucy, Jenn! SO excited about your books! 

(And aw, thank you all. I am freaking out in pre-launch crazies, and it’s wonderful to have you here.)

AND! THE FIRST TO LIE is in a Goodreads giveaway! Sign up now! https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/309617-the-first-to-lie

JENN MCKINLAY: I’ve discovered a new author Mhairi (pronounced Vah-Ree) McFarlane and I just devoured IF I NEVER MET YOU. A women’s fiction novel set in Manchester that was charming and witty and smart. I loved it. Also, I read Farrah Rochon’s THE BOYFRIEND PROJECT which was delightful. Truly, wonderful romcom about women supporting women. Fabulous. As for mysteries, I have Hank’s THE FIRST TO LIE lined up, having just finished DEATH AT HIGH TIDE by Hannah Dennison, which was perfection! It comes out next month and it’s a traditional mystery featuring two sisters as amateur sleuths who inherit an old hotel on the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall. So fun!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We are having a Reds bonanza!! Last week I read Jenn's PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA, and I barely put it down from start to finish! I loved it SO much!!! This week I'm reading Hank's fabulous THE FIRST TO LIE, and loving that, too. Next week is--yay--Rhys's latest Georgie, THE LAST MRS. SUMMERS. I've just finished Jim Butcher's latest and long-awaited Harry Dresden novel, PEACE TALKS. And up on my TBR pile, Kim Powers' RULES FOR BEING DEAD, S.C. Perkins' LINEAGE MOST LETHAL, Andrew Wilson's A TALENT FOR DEATH, his first book featuring Agatha Christie. I managed to snag a used paperback copy, so excited! I've also got Karen Odden's A TRACE OF DECEIT, which I would have bought just for the cover. It is so gorgeous. 

Then looking forward to Lucy's THE KEY LIME CRIME (I really need some Key West and Haley Snow in my life right now…) and coming in September, the new Robert Galbraith Cormoron Strike novel, TROUBLED BLOOD. I absolutely cannot wait for this one--I LOVE this series. And isn't there a new Vera coming from Ann Cleeves? Oooh, and Jenn's ONE FOR THE BOOKS, coming in September, too!

Oh, and adding one more. I really want to read Maggie O'Farrell's HAMNET, a novel about Will Shakespeare that's getting amazing reviews. Has anyone else read this one?

RHYS BOWEN : I am currently in one of my blurbing overloads, with three books currently waiting for my endorsements. All enjoyable, I’m glad to say, but it certainly puts a damper on my reading for pleasure. Which means I’m only part way through Jenn’s PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA and next week I have to find time for Hank and Lucy’s new books. Oh, and next week I just happen to have a new book out myself, which means Zoom events and blog interviews and lots of social media.

I wish someone would give permission for me to just sit and read. Every other summer I’m sitting by a lovely beach, or in an Italian garden or by the River Seine and I can read without being interrupted.

Now it seems I should have all the time in the world at home but as well as book promotion I have writing to do, copy edits coming in, proposal for next novel etc etc.  I am dreaming of my vacation!

Lucy: Rhys, I just said that exact thing to my writing group pals: I need to take the month of September and read, read, read... Reds, are you reading? What must we add to our piles?

Cover Reveal: I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird @susancerulean

LUCY BURDETTE: Every guest is special to us, but I bet you will forgive me for saying it's especially special when my sister Susan Cerulean has book news to share. Her new book, I HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED THE SINGLE BIRD, will be out next August, but the cover is too spectacular to wait. So here it is, and here she is with an introduction and some pre-order links. And you'll see more of this next summer!

SUSAN CERULEAN: I am thrilled to join you as a guest of the awesome Jungle Red Writers! You're the first to hear of my new memoir, I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird, and I hope you'll be intrigued.

 My main line of work and writing has always had to do with wildlife and natural landscapes. These days there's so much bad news out there, regarding climate, regarding species extinction, you name it. So how can I draw in my readers to understand the root causes of these planetary issues, and hopefully be part of the change we need?

 In 2009, our beloved stepmother, Mary Jane, died unexpectedly. Our  80-year-old father, frail and in the early stages of dementia, had been placed in a  residential care facility close to her home in southern New Jersey. None of her five children and none of my  siblings lived close enough to be helpful on a daily basis.

How would we see to our father's care after his wife had died?  That's an issue that so many people can identify with these days.

Bob Isleib with Susan and Roberta

My husband and I volunteered to bring dad down to Tallahassee, Florida where we live and work. I knew my sister Roberta (Lucy) would be a strong support, so I didn't feel completely alone. However, the work of advocating and seeing to the care of someone who is ever so slowly, but inevitably declining due to the brain disease that would eventually end his life--that was far more than I understood at first.

One of the gifts of the four years that we had Dad very close by, was to see the links between my work as a conservationist and writer, and the work of taking care of a vulnerable elder.  As writers do, I took good notes of both kinds of care giving, and eventually realized that the two belonged together in a braided memoir. I'm so glad to share its upcoming birth with you! 

I wonder if all of you out there--writers and readers both--can think of two  apparently disparate parts of your life that could meld into a compelling memoir?

Pre-order from University of Georgia Press

Pre-order on Amazon


SUSAN CERULEAN is a writer, naturalist, and activist based in Tallahassee, Florida. Her most recent book, Coming to Pass, won the Florida Book Award for best nonfiction in 2016. 

After the Storm by Susan Cerulean

LUCY BURDETTE: You might remember my sister, Susan Cerulean, from her post about standing with the people of Standing Rock two years ago. She is a talented writer and a tireless and fierce advocate for the natural world and its creatures. October 10, she and her husband and millions of North Florida residents hunkered down through the harrowing winds of Hurricane Michael, and have been reeling from the damage. (The link is to her article in Sierra Magazine about this experience.) I thought this would be a good time to invite her back...

SUSAN CERULEAN: On November 13, Rhys Bowen mused on this blog about escaping to special places she loves, in these troubled times. Places that might be safer. Places untouched by violence and wildfire and climate change.

Part of me wants to escape, too.  But what happens when even your beloved place of solace is hurt or destroyed by fire, wind, storm or violence?

Hurricane Michael, a Class 4 hurricane with wind speeds topping 150 miles per hour, buzz-sawed through North Florida four weeks ago.  My special place, a coastal barrier island with wide beaches, enormous sand dunes and green pine forests, was slammed by the eastern bands of that storm.  The island, a national wildlife refuge, didn’t receive the attention of nearby, hard-hit communities of Panama City, Mexico Beach and Port Saint Joe, because no people live there. 

But a week after the storm, my husband and I kayaked over to the island, and were shocked at the loss of miles of tall, 800-year-old sand dunes, the island's first line of defense.  Nor could we account for the hundreds of brown pelicans, black skimmers, gulls and terns that had made their homes--the places where they nest and rest and raise their young--on the island.

I knew I couldn’t bring back the birds or the dunes, or stop hurricanes or the sea level from rising, but I knew what I could do: pick up trash left behind by the storm.

I cleared about a mile of the beach of plastic, enough it seemed, to fill a Walmart.  Four enormous trash cans, watering cans and golf tees, fishing poles and buckets, chairs and children’s toys, and even the signs that had marked off the nesting bird areas.

It was a cool beautiful day, and somehow, in all those hours of schlepping and hauling trash, I found some happiness.  When the birds do come back, they won’t find their refuge choked with storm debris.  And perhaps, I thought, the beaches, now doubled or tripled in width, would offer attractive nesting to sea turtle nesting next year.

What do you turn to when the problems of the world feel overwhelming?

Writer and naturalist Susan Cerulean divides her time between Indian Pass and Tallahassee, Florida. Her most recent book, Coming to Pass, Florida's Coastal Islands in a Gulf of Change, won a gold medal from the Florida Book Awards in 2016. The book is now available as a paperback from the University of Georgia Press.

You can read more about Susan on her blog

Attachments

Reflections on Standing Rock @susancerulean

LUCY BURDETTE: Today I'm honored to introduce my sister, Susan Cerulean, who is a nature writer and a fierce advocate for the environment. When we heard that she was going to visit Standing Rock Reservation to support the Sioux protest of the Dakota Access pipeline, we all agreed we'd like to hear about her experience. I asked some questions (in bold) and she'll be happy to answer questions and comments from you as well. 

SUSAN CERULEAN: On the snowy, stinging cold prairies of North Dakota, encampments at Standing Rock have evolved into the longest running protest in modern history.  The main camp—Oceti Sakowin--sits on Federal lands that legally belong to the Standing Rock Sioux under the terms of an 1851 treaty.  On that site, thousands of Native Americans and others are seeking to halt completion of the 1172-mile Dakota Access pipeline, which is being constructed to transport fracked oil from the Bakkan shale oil fields of North Dakota, to southern Illinois.  The concern about an oil spill upriver from the tribe’s water source has resonated with groups across the country.  Militarized law enforcement has responded to the nonviolent prayer marches and actions with road blockades, illegal eviction notices, arrests, tear gas, rubber bullets, attack dogs and water cannons.  This is why the Sioux people invited us to come stand with them.

What made you decide to go to Standing Rock, and what did you hope to accomplish or offer?

In the first days after the devastating Nov. 8 election, like so many others, I searched for a larger context of hope, and for personal direction.  I have worked my entire life as a wildlife biologist, an environmental advocate and a writer, and it’s clear that we have entered a time when we can no longer count on politicians or the government to protect our life-giving planet Earth.  We must find a way to wake up ourselves--and every other human being--to the utter gravity of our situation.

I saw a Facebook post from Tallahassee-born Caitlin McMullin, who had just spent 7 days at Standing Rock with her 3-month old baby boy, Clay.  Should I go, would it be helpful? I asked Caitlin.  ABSOLUTELY! she messaged in return.

So, hoping to support Native Americans, and on behalf of the river, and very much hoping to understand the disconnect between most people and our climate crisis, I traveled to North Dakota for a week with my niece, Erin Canter.  We went because what is happening on the banks of the Missouri River and all along the pipeline path is a one-sided war.  We went to witness, to learn, and to work, however we might be needed.  With us we brought $3000 in cash contributions from generous friends, and two enormous boxes of wool clothing to give to people there.

What expectations did you have about the camp and the protesters, and how were these either met or changed? What surprised you most?

I didn’t expect there to be so many young, white people at the camp, eager to contribute and to risk doing direct action on the front lines.  A good thing, because it meant support and media attention; and a challenging thing for the Native Americans, because it required a steep training curve for the influx of newcomers.  There were orientation meetings every day led by Natives, reminding us that we were there to pray, and in no way to bring violence to the struggle.  The camp swelled to about 10,000 occupants during the first week of December when we arrived, and although people were asked to provide for themselves, many were not prepared for the cold, and the primitive conditions.  We were asked to be mindful of our status as “allies,” that this was a Native struggle, and that their thinking needed to always be central.  As white people, many of us don’t realize how front and center we put ourselves (which perpetuates colonization).

Don’t we need that pipeline as a step toward energy independence?

We’ve got to look at a much bigger picture.  If we’re going to have any hope of slowing climate change, remaining fossil coal and oil deposits– and carbon dioxide they would generate– need to stay in the ground.  In precisely the way we hope Brazil guards the Amazon rainforest, that massive sponge for carbon dioxide absorption, we need to slow our mining and fracking, and invest in true energy independence—meaning cutting back our consumption of fossil fuels, and investing heavily in renewable sources, such as solar and wind.

The day that you left North Dakota, the permit for the pipeline was denied. That's a great step. Now we can all breathe a sigh of relief, right?

Ever so briefly.  I take my cue from the Standing Rock peoples, who are cheered, but know this is just a respite. Every single Cabinet pick made by the Trump administration this week is ready to dismantle all the protections we have in place for clean air and water, wildlife and public lands.  I’d say we are looking at some rough times ahead.

How is this issue related to other environmental issues that you've gotten involved in? What can ordinary people do to help?

All of my life I’ve worked on behalf of the natural world, for several nonprofits, for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, on the Board of the Nature Conservancy, and now as a board member and volunteer for St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge.  I primarily identify as a writer, though, and all of my books and talks are interpretive: where do we live, and with whom do we share our space?  Why is it so hard to protect non-human species and natural landscapes, when we love them so much?  I love that I get to be a voice for birds, islands, the Earth.  It’s such a privilege.  People should sign up for my blog, and read my books.  I’ve got plenty of answers!

This election, coupled with raging climate change, offers us a wake up call we ignore at our peril.  Every single one of us needs to step our game, our activism.

And me being me, I have to ask, where did you sleep and what did you eat? What was it like physically in the camp?

As you know, we came prepared to camp, and therefore had no reservations to stay at the closest and only hotel, the Standing Rock Prairie Knights Casino (7 miles south of the camp). 

But our gear was no match for the subfreezing temperatures, so we crashed with friends who did have heated rooms up the road.  During the daytime we subsisted on peanut butter and energy bars, but at night I splurged on the buffet at the Casino.  It wasn’t delicious, but it was hot food!

And ps, for anyone in Key West on December 22, Susan will be speaking at the Key West library at 4 pm.