Laura Whitfield - Untethered: Faith, Failure, and Finding Solid Ground

Praise for Untethered

When life falls apart, its easy to assume youre alone in your suffering. Or worse, that youre stuck there. Untethered is a haunting exploration of lifes disorienting darkness punctuated by lightning strikes of hope. Laura forces readers to confront the vulnerability of being human while offering a rousing call to more abundant life. If youve ever felt blindsided by disappointment and disillusionment, Lauras journey of faith amid failure is not to be missed. Highly recommend!

Jonathan Merritt, contributing writer for The Atlantic and author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch

Untethered is a breathtaking glimpse into the unraveling of a life after death. With winsome prose, Whitfields poignant coming-of-age narrative takes the reader on a journey of what happens when we come undone. This is a timely memoir of loss, sex, beauty, family, and the courage it takes to regain our footing amid chaos.

J. Dana Trent, author of Dessert First:Preparing for Death While Savoring Life

Untethered is about learning to forgive yourself and deal with the unresolved grief from compounded traumas that so many of us as women carry, believing that burden to be our cross to bear in silence and shame. A deep and satisfying read.

Echo Montgomery Garrett, author of My Orange Duffel Bag:A Journey to Radical Change and cofounder of the Orange Duffel Bag Initiative

With radiant honesty, Whitfield tells the story of losing her beloved brother, which set her on a quest to find emotional and spiritual sanctuary. We follow her wild years in the Outer Banks, New York City, and Chapel Hill, where she seeks solace in men, jobs, and her writing. What she must learn is how to find a way for my faith and my life to line up. Whitfields frank, vibrant memoir reads with the page-turning urgency of a novel you cant put down. Fans of Mary Karrs Lit and Anne Lamotts Traveling Mercies will want to read this book.

Marianne Gingher, professor of English and creative writing, UNC, and author of A Girls Life and Adventures in Pen Land

Untethered is a page-turning read for anyone who has dared to follow a dream, suffered tragic loss, and longed for redemption.

Michael Morris, author of A Place Called Wiregrass, Slow Way Home, and Man in the Blue Moon

Its not easy to reach into our darkest truths. In Untethered, Whitfield takes the deep dive into faith, family, love, loss, and the longing to find oneself.

Cheryl Sharp, CEO of Sharp Change Consulting and former head of the National Council for Behavioral Healths Trauma-Informed Care initiatives

Whitfields memoir is an engrossing coming-of-age tale. Marked by deep grief and aspiration, broken relationships and restoration, her story moves from a quiet beginning in North Carolina, to New York City and back again, all in pursuit of a defined sense of self. In her generous telling, Whitfield reminds us that humility, grace, and deep gratitude can yield the richest rewards, and that this lifes greatest fulfillment comes in relationship with others.

Rebecca Brewster Stevenson, author of Healing Maddie Brees and Wait

Untethered is an exciting journey of a dynamic womanand while it represents her life, there are so many moments of Oh, I know that feeling that she could be writing about me and my life, only with different names! So many of us have gone through the journey of finding ourselves while thinking it takes a man to get thereWhitfields story shows us that we need ourselves to find ourselvesand along the way, we might also find love. A great read for women of all ages.

Jen Oleniczak Brown, founder of The Engaging Educator and author of Think on Your Feet

Copyright 2022 Laura Whitfield

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, digital scanning, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please address She Writes Press.

Published 2022

Printed in the United States of America

Print ISBN: 978-1-64742-221-9

E-ISBN: 978-1-64742-319-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021914307

For information, address:

She Writes Press

1569 Solano Ave #546

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She Writes Press is a division of SparkPoint Studio, LLC.

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NAMES AND IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE PRIVACY OF CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS.

To Mama, Daddy, Lawrence, and Horace.

Because of you, I am.

T his is my story the way I remember it. If other people were to tell this story from their perspective, it would be different. But that would be their story to tell. This is mine.

All of the events presented here did happen as told through the filter of memory. It is my best recollection of what took place long ago. Some of it is mined from newspapers, journals, and conversations. The dialogueand there is quite a bitis what I recall being said. When I was unable to remember a conversation verbatim, I captured its essence and intent.

Finally, I meant no harm to anyone in the writing of my story. I simply needed to get it down. Most of the names and some identifying details were changed to protect the privacy of those I wrote about. To those who have passed away, I hope this honors your memory.

I am inclined to believe that Gods chief purpose in giving us memory is to enable us to go back in time so that if we didnt play those roles right the first time round, we can still have another go at it now.

Frederick Buechner, author of Telling Secrets

I remember driving down a highway in 1990 and seeing a sign that read, Lane ends in 2,000 feet. I counted the seconds as I drove to where the lane ran out. It seemed endless. My brother, Lawrence, had fallen half that distance as he was climbing Ben Nevis. Almost twenty years had passed, and the same questions still haunted me: What was he thinking as he plummeted? Was it about his fiance, Julie? Horace? My parents? Me?

It was a Sunday in late February of 1971, and Mama and I had just returned home from seeing the movie Love Story. As Id watched Ryan ONeal and Ali MacGraw playing in the snow, Id thought of Lawrence, who was now living in Scotland, working on a masters in English at the University of Edinburgh. It had been six months since Id seen him, and I missed him terribly.

It was so sad, I told Daddy. They fell in love and then she died.