“My AROHO Story,” by Marcia Meier
I met Saddle Road Press Publisher Ruth Thompson at AROHO in 2011 (as well as seven other women who have become very close friends), and Ruth has been on my writing journey of this memoir for all these years, encouraging and offering critical feedback. AROHO changed my life in many ways, not the least by bringing Ruth and these other dear women into my life. Until this covid year, we have met every summer on the Northern California coast for 10 days of writing, reading, and being in communion with each other. Last year Ruth, after reading the latest revision of this work, offered to publish it. I was thrilled, and am grateful to her, and AROHO for bringing us together!
Face is an unforgettable story of childhood trauma and abuse, identity, and faith. At age five, Marcia Meier was hit by a car, losing the left side of her face and eyelid. Over the next fifteen years she underwent twenty surgeries and spent days blinded by bandages, her hands tied to the sides of her hospital bed. Scarred both physically and emotionally, abused at school, blamed and rejected by her mother, Marcia survived and went on to create a successful life as a journalist, a wife and mother. But at midlife her controlled world began to fall apart, and Marcia began a journey into the darkness of her past, her true identity, her deepest beliefs – a spiritual and emotional exploration that resulted in the creation of Face.
Praise for Face
Face, A Memoir, is a beautifully rendered examination of the long-term impact of childhood trauma. Meier’s journey of recovery and growth is testimony to her strength of spirit, and her story will inspire every reader. — Hope Edelman, author of Motherless Daughters, The Possibility of Everything, and The AfterGrief, Finding Your Way Along the Long Arc of Loss
In her memoir Face, Marcia Meier achingly, courageously explores anger, bewilderment, and loss, the complex legacy of a terrible trauma to her face and her psyche at the age of five. In each page of this gripping story, Meier lifts from dark places of deep hurt multiple shards of emotion-charged memory, and, turning their facets in the healing light of contemplation, investigation, and imagination, she offers readers the benefit of her soul work: the transformation of rage and suffering into love and compassion.” — Christine Hale, author of A Piece of Sky, A Grain of Rice: A Memoir in Four Meditations
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