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Event Details

 

In this clip, Mary tells the story of the woman she writes about in her book who has only three words, "Hallelujah" and "Bye Bye Baby" being two of them.

Listening to Mary reading and reflecting on her experience with this lady is such a moving experience that leaves me with no doubt about the value of hearing each other at every stage of life!

THE LAST PAIR OF EARS is a collection of poems and short stories about seeing and hearing what we aren't supposed to notice; 'lost stories' that have been overlooked, suppressed, or forgotten.

FAMILY SECRETS: all families have at least one. Shameful ones, dark ones, sad ones. 'Premature' babies born before they should have been; babies who looked like family friends, rather than their fathers; women who did anything to keep food on the table, when men couldn't or wouldn't work. Most of these secrets are harboured by women; they respect and fear them enough not to misplace or forget the secrets. They love the rest of us enough not to tell the secrets publicly.

I know what happens to families when the secret-keeping mothers and grandmothers die or, dementing, forget and are themselves lost. Families unravel, as if the secret no one knew or talked about was the thing that kept the family together. I hear secret things, things no one else has ever heard, and try to keep the secrets safe, because they might be all that my patients have left of who they were or were not allowed to be.

Click here for more information about The Last Pair of Ears.

About Mary F. McDonough

 

Mary McDonough-Clark is a writer, editor, therapist, and communication consultant. She is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde. She has been writing poetry since age 7, and telling stories for even longer.

Mary was born in Indiana, lived all over the US (and yes, she means all over: her Dad worked for IBM), and moved to Northern Italy, then Edinburgh, before settling (at least for the next year or so) in Glasgow.

She worked in in the NHS in mental health/adult learning disabilities/compassionate care settings, where she was known as 'The Swallowing Wifey', as an SLT for 11 years, and currently teaches at the University of Strathclyde in addition to working for the Disability Service.

She also works for Gadfly Consulting. Her PhD work-in-progress is a book of poetry, short stories, and hybrids. Her primary supervisor finds scary about 'Dirt' in all possible senses of the term. She remains a passionate advocate of helping people to tell their own stories, and uses principles of CAT (cognitive analytic therapy) and other therapeutic modalities in her work, in which she writes regularly with clients, staff, and anyone brave enough to give it a go.

Click HERE to visit Mary's website.