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9781643365060 Academic Inspection Copy

Otherwise, I'm Fine

A Memoir
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A daughter's story of unresolved grief and a family's hard-won healing When her husband Bill died in 1969, Tina Presnell gathered her three children. "We won't talk about this," she said. "It will be easier that way." In 2012, several years after her mother's death, Barbara Presnell recovered her father's World War II belongings: a scrapbook, news clippings, documents, and letters. Recalling how much his war experiences had meant to him, Barbara, along with her estranged brother and sister, planned a journey to travel their father's route through Europe. From Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, to the western bank of the Elbe River in Magdeburg, Germany, the siblings would follow the movements of their father's division and rediscover his stories, share memories, and renew family bonds. In Otherwise, I'm Fine, Presnell tells the story of her grief and, across her tour of western Europe, the breakthroughs that released her from recurring depression, resolved her conflicted grief for her mother, and returned her beloved father to her and her siblings as a living memory.
Barbara Presnell taught writing for forty years at UNC Charlotte and other colleges and universities. She is the author of several poetry collections, including Piece Work, and her work is featured in Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia.
Told through a series of vignettes, weaving and connecting the past and the present, Otherwise I'm Fine is a poignant reminder of the unintentional pain that we can inflict on each other. Presnell also brings us hope that families can be reunited and the scars of war can bring reconciliation if we'll just listen to their stories. -- "Chapter 16" A tender family memoir about grief, memory, and reconnection. -- "Foreword Reviews"
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