JUDY THOMPSON

I am a 71 year old grandmother and hopefully I have gained some wisdom just by living this long. I believe that we look to others for help and guidance to finding peace and hope with the process of life. Since the beginning of time we humans have been on a search for answers to life’s many questions and also to measure our pain and happiness, success and failures. Stories and books are a form of therapy whether to escape into another world for relief or to try to solve a problem. My book although not a self-help book, offers intimate insights into experiences of adoption, finding love, relationships and loss. 

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My book is unique in that it takes place in Lost Creek, West Virginia the heart of Appalachia. The time period begins in the late 1940’s’ with graphic descriptions of our Family’s struggle to adapt to industrialization, poverty, murder and loss. Large families were common.  I was born the seventh child to such a family in 1946. My story appeals to all but predominately to women and teenage girls. I expect that book clubs will choose Lost Creek as it opens many doors for discussions.

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I wrote this book to examine myself and life to settle my mind. I needed to be sure of things, like my abandonment by my family, the facts about my father’s disappearance and my mother’s murder. Memoirs have taught me that I wasn’t alone with an unhappy, tragic childhood. Somehow these stories convey courage to hang in there and fight because there just may be a happy ending. When I told people my story, and I have for my whole life, I was surprised by their shocked responses, in fact as an adult I had to learn to warn them ahead of time that my story may be a little unnerving. You see Mother was murdered when I was just 6 years old. I gauged their responses watching to see how painful the hurt was but it didn’t stop the haunting.

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The reality of my story will entertain as well as measure how we change and grow as people and as a community. America. Lest we forget the strong roots and the struggles of the hard working families that make our country great. The story’s background: the great depression, WWII Post war, Appalachia, the glass industry, the small towns and of course we are all searching for our dreams.