Greetings, and welcome to my new subscribers! The Embassy Cable is a monthly look behind the stories in Embassy Kid: An American Foreign Service Family Memoir, and the view from my writing desk as I share the book. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at my memoir-in-progress, Amsterdam Strong: Becoming Unstoppable, a bit about what I’m reading and watching, and, as always, a closing picture of Kumba, my rescue Lab and therapy dog.
More Photos From Jane’s Childhood: Images behind the pages of Embassy Kid
In the summer of 1973, two events coincided: my preparation for the American college experience and my father’s transfer from Madrid to Rome. Yes, in a Foreign Service career already rich in experiences, my family found itself returning to the Eternal City for a second time.
First, we had one more pilgrimage to make: to see our beloved Josefina, the woman who raised my sister and me from babies to little girls in Caracas. We drove to Galicia, where Fina had returned from Venezuela to her rural family home. Embassy Kid illustrator Camila Acosta Sánchez captured the moment when Fina’s beloved niñas and their parents were back in each others’ arms.
Sharing Embassy Kid
I was thrilled for my debut memoir to be celebrated in September by hosts Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner, creators and leaders of Memoir Nation! Check out this empowering community of writers telling their stories here.
Here’s some of what Brooke said on the Memoir Nation podcast:
I really do love this title. I love how it says what it is, Embassy Kid. And the book has a beautifully illustrated cover and there are illustrations inside. And she entices readers into her journey with stories of what she lived through.
I was also honored to be invited to dialogue twice in September with the TCK Support Community for Third Culture Kids led by founder Andrea Clark, a therapist and an adult TCK. On September 12, I joined nearly 40 TCK’s from across America and around the globe in considering how writing our stories can be liberating and empowering. On the 20th, I was thrilled to be a guest on the TCK Book Club, delighted to answer questions from international TCKs who’d read the book. How fascinating to compare notes about growing up global!
What I’m Writing
My work-in-progress, Amsterdam Strong, documents my three-month hospitalization in Amsterdam and years’ long rehabilitation following a ruptured abdominal aneurysm. My husband, daughter, and sister sat vigil at my bedside in the ICU; my husband spent every afternoon with me while I was in the hospital recovery unit; and my husband was my caretaker for months when we were finally able to return home.
Last month, I wrote about having accurate empathy for my family’s experience as the result of being my husband’s caregiver in this summer after when illness landed him in the hospital. What I did not anticipate, however, was the debilitating impact that the process had on my own health, including symptoms that mimicked Parkinson’s. A long series of tests has just ruled out that dire diagnosis, making me even more grateful to be able to tell the story of my recovery and complete rehabilitation. And recommitted to my exercise and self-care routine.
I return to work on Amsterdam Strong newly informed and humbled by these experiences and very grateful to be able to share my story!
What I’m Reading
One of the delights about this public author life is reconnecting with old friends. David and I went to Torrejon High School together in Madrid, and he has just sent me a marvelous 2001 memoir, Marie Arana’s American Chica. Raised by a brilliant Peruvian engineer and a dazzling musician from the wilds of Wyoming, it was only when she immigrated from Latin America to the US that Arana “understood that she was a hybrid American whose cultural identity was split in half.” The New York Times Book Review said: “Reads like a collaboration between John Cheever and Isabel Allende.”
What I’m Watching
The Great British Baking Show is back with a new season! Unlike most Netflix offerings, new episodes drop weekly. Nigella Lawson has replaced the colorful Prue Leith, a change I warmed to over the first episode as Nigella charmingly engaged with resident glowerer and rare handshake-giver Paul Hollywood.
Kumba’s Korner
Our rescue Lab, Kumba, and I became a therapy team through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs more than two years ago, visiting with the assisted living and memory care residents at Elegance at Lake Worth. We’ve had to take a leave from the work due to family illness but the memories abound.
J. K. (Kelly) Amerson López