Join author Donna Dearborn on Wednesday, February 12, at 7 PM, (Snowdate, Monday, March 5, 7 PM) for a talk on her book about her father, Frank Dearborn, who was Brattleboro’s Department of Parks and Recreation Director for 33 years.
Every Sunday–A Daughter’s Enduring Connection is a tribute to her father, the story of a man who lived life with extraordinary kindness and humility. Frank Dearborn was the much-loved Recreation Director and fitness role model for the Town of Brattleboro for 33 years, active in biking, skiing, tennis, and an End-to-End hiker of Vermont’s Long Trail.
Father and daughter had written to each other every Sunday, until a shocking and unexpected stroke at the age of 75 paralyzed him, abruptly changed their lives, and halted their Sunday letters after 32 years. To cope with the sadness and despair of seeing her father no longer able to walk, care for himself, or voice his needs, she began to write and never stopped. Determined to connect with her father and preserve their good memories, she wrote and shared stories about Long Trail hikes, Springfield College days, birthday ski adventures, White Mountain summits, childhood moments, and more during Sunday nursing home visits.
Every Sunday is a memoir about a great man and an inspirational father-daughter bond—a story of faithfulness, hope, and love.
Donna Dearborn grew up in an active family in Brattleboro where her adventurous spirit and love of the outdoors emerged at an early age. Degrees in math, environmental science, exercise physiology, and biochemistry led to a diversity of jobs. Donna has been an English teacher in Korea, Outward Bound wilderness instructor, fitness director, algebra and trigonometry teacher, hut warden in New Zealand, ski instructor, director of a Human Performance Lab, tennis pro, tax preparer, and field hockey coach. Her story “A Well-Guarded Fort—Escape Not Guaranteed” was recently published in Peak Experiences—Danger, Death, and Daring in the Northeast. She has trekked the hill tribe country of northern Thailand, hiked and skied hut to hut in Norway, built trails and backpacked in Alaska, sea kayaked in Newfoundland, gone scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and explored southern Patagonia. While still a vagabond at heart, she’s happily settled in the familiar, rolling green hills of Vermont and the home in Chester she shares with her husband, Wally, and yellow Labs, Ella and Eva.
Every Sunday is the upbeat, powerful story of a father and a daughter; of love, relationship, and second chances; a story you won’t soon forget. -Fran Lynggaard Hansen, columnist, author, and Brattleboro native
Location Meeting Room
Contact Info Jerry Carbone, 802-254-5290 ext 101
http://brookslibraryvt.org/upcoming-events/eventdetail/733/68%7C69%7C70/every-sunday-daughter-s-enduring-connection
http://brookslibraryvt.org
