donkey publishing

A warm and moving collection of stories and poems that survey a long life well lived. Ms Leete had the good luck of a loving family, headed by a doting father, several of whose remarkable letters to his wife and daughters are justly included here. Her own stories and poems include her youthful journalism, from when she covered the American civil rights movement for Parisian papers. She includes as well, with moving clarity, her struggle to cope with the loss of her beloved husband and the healing powers of returning to the cello and taking up T'ai Chi, of delving deeply into the healing power of friends and home.

Elisabeth Bourquin Leete was born in Geneva into a warm, close-knit family. Her father, a minister, died early, leaving behind deeply felt love notes to his wife and daughters. From him she inherited her love and talent for writing and so pursued a career in journalism. As a writer for several Parisian news services she covered human interest stories, such as interviewing Brigitte Bardot, and major events, such as the American civil rights movement. Covering the American scene brought her to the US where she met and married her husband; they settled, eventually, in Ashfield Massachusetts, a sylvan, quiet corner of the world. Their long, loving marriage ended with her husband’s death from cancer, and stories and poems in her collection giving moving reflections on the journey through grief, its aching depths and the slow climb toward healing. Ms. Leete tells of the healing grace of music, how she resumed her cello after years of neglect, playing regularly now and hosting an annual ＂cello bash.＂ Her garden and home, ever inviting, remain open to her husband’s memory and her friends frequent visits. She remains vigorously open to all that life has to offer and her spirit, captured in this little volume, will lift the heart of every reader.