The beginnings
I’ve been writing all my life; scribbling in diaries and on sheets of torn-out notebook paper. This process was no different in 2020, when I began the new year with a new paperback journal and intentions to write when needed.
In March 2020, just days after the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, I joined a weekly writing group. My diary became an amalgamation of creative pieces and daily reflections. I had no idea how important this regular practice of writing would become until July 2020 when my Dad took ill and was soon diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer.
Ron Patterson is my Dad. He was born May 29, 1951. He died August 4, 2020. He was 69 years old.
I wrote before my Dad’s diagnosis pausing only to give him hospice care for the week between his diagnosis and his death. I then wrote through the hours, days, weeks, and months after his death. I am still writing.
In November 2021, I began writing a book about my Dad. About me. About grief. About joy. It began with transcribing 4 diaries worth of writings; Jan 2020-Dec 2021. This blog is an accompaniment to that work: a place I’m creating to think, reflect, remember, and process, as I transcribe and write.
RECENT WRITINGS
the beginning
Ron Patterson is my Dad. He was born May 29, 1951. He died August 4, 2020. He was 69 years old. My name is Joanne Gayle Patterson. My dad said that my middle name means “a strong wind” and that I embody that gale.
dancing monarchs + milky coffee 