Marie Williams - Green Vanilla Tea: One Familys Extraordinary Journey of Love, Hope, and Remembering

Marie Williams has worked as a clinical social worker in health settings, nonprofit sectors, clinical education, and private practice. She is also an artist and believes in the power of creativity and story to transform. The Australian edition of Williams book, Green Vanilla Tea won the national Finch Memoir Prize in 2013. Williams lives in Brisbane, Australia.

I dare you to read Green Vanilla Tea and not fall in love with this family. Marie Williams has written a beautiful memoir about facing illness and loss with love and hope. She has opened her familys life and experiences to us in a way that will help us stay in touch with the richness of life and relationships, even in times of heartbreak and the loss of dreams. Thank you, Marie Williams, for this extraordinary love story.

Jill Freedman, MSW, family therapist and director of Evanston Family Therapy Center in Evanston, Illinois, as well as coauthor of Symbol, Story, and Ceremony; Narrative Therapy; and Narrative Therapy with Couples

This beautifully written memoir of a husband and father who suffers a premature death is also a story about how families and communities cope with the ambiguous loss that precedes the physical death of a loved one. In the words of a young child who was part of the nurturing community that surrounded Dominic, we will crowd you with our love. Insightful, heart-rending, and inspiring, this book offers the details of a familys life shattered by Doms years of decline and death from a rare neurological condition. While particular about these people, Green Vanilla Tea provides lessons about love, care, generosity, and sadness. With unflinching descriptions of the darkness and despair the family faced, the book also shows their path toward solace and hope. Movingly, it shows how they were able to repair and restore a sense of wholeness to their interrupted lives. I highly recommend this brave book.

Kaethe Weingarten, PhD, associate clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School (1981-2013) and director of the Witnessing Project at www.witnessingproject.org

Heartbreaking, compelling, warm and compassionate. Its a knockout book that hits so many of the right notes and is completely relevant in todays world. And its unbelievablyconsidering the tragedyuplifting. An inspiring read.

Susan Duncan, author of Salvation Creek

[I was] moved by the tragedy of the story, and the love and trust and care and kindness everybody showed.

Jacqui Kent, editor and author of The Making of Julia Gillard

Nobody has the right to have the last word on a book as beautiful as this. There would be few who have loved and cared for a person with dementia who will not be able to relate to the many moments of acute sadness, laughter, and joy in this book.

Ita Buttrose, AO, OBE

Green Vanilla Tea is the winner of the 2013 Finch Memoir Prize and its easy to see why. Williams has written a powerful and heartbreaking account of her husbands illness, and the challenges faced by the family, which never loses sight of the immense love that binds this family together. This is an inspiring and important memoir.

Sarina Gale, Books + Publishing

The standard of the entries we receive improves every year. Marie won against some fierce competition including finalist Heath Landers book The Bouncer, which we will publish later in 2013. However, the judges agreed that Green Vanilla Tea was the standout entry this year, making us laugh, cry, and above all, reflect on the value of love and family.

Rex Finch, Finch Publishing

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Living Memory by Brian Andreas 2012 Brian Andreas / Storypeople. Reprinted with permission.

Lyrics to In Her Eyes 2006 Molly Kaye, Jeff Cohen, Michael Ochs, and Jeff Selby. Reprinted with permission.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright 2014 by Marie Williams

New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

5674 Shattuck Avenue

Oakland, CA 94609

www.newharbinger.com

Cover design by Amy Shoup

Acquired by Tesilya Hanauer

Edited by Clancy Drake

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Williams, Marie.

Green vanilla tea : one familys extraordinary journey of love, hope, and remembering / Marie Williams.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-62625-197-7 (paperback) -- ISBN 978-1-62625-198-4 (pdf e-book) -- ISBN 978-1-62625-199-1 (epub) 1. Williams, Marie. 2. Presenile dementia--Patients--Biography. 3. Presenile dementia--Patients--Family relationships. 4. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis--Patients--Biography. 5. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis--Patients--Family relationships. I. Title.

RC522.W55 2014

616.830092--dc23

[B]

2014016204

To my sonswith all my love.

Living Memory

I carry you with me into the world

Into the smell of the rain

And the words that dance between people

And for me it will always be this way

Walking in the light

Remembering being alive together

Brian Andreas, StoryPeople