Freeville author writes her first-ever memoir

Over the years, village of Freeville resident, local author and travel writer Rachel Dickinson has become known for writing several history books and activity books on science and history for middle-school-age children.

For Dickinson’s seventh book, she went off the beaten path on the subject matter.

“The Loneliest Places: Loss, Grief, and the Long Journey Home,” released Oct. 15, is a memoir that collects essays written by Dickinson. It’s the first memoir that Dickinson has written.

The essays, Dickinson said, were written about how she’s dealt with loss in the past decade after her son, Jack, died by suicide in February 2012. Jack, a senior at Dryden High School at the time, was 17 when he passed away.

“It threw me into a total tailspin,” Dickinson said. “I thought I wouldn’t be able to write anything in my life again.”

After a few years of not being able to do much following Jack’s death, Dickinson found the courage to break away and start going on “long journeys to lonely places … hence the title [of the book].”

Dickinson enjoyed traveling to places her son had never been to.

“It was a relief from myself having to deal with overwhelming sadness,” she said. “I liked going to some place where no one knew me or my backstory or Jack.”

This led the well-known author to start writing essays — thinking if she wrote about Jack, or wrote about how she was feeling, it would “take some of the pressure” off of the grieving process.

“I had never been an essayist, so it was a new form for me,” Dickinson said.

She wrote 30 essays over a 10-year span, with more than a dozen ending up in her book, she added.

Prior to the release of the book, Dickinson was approached by an editor, also a friend, at Cornell University Press. When the editor was curious whether Dickinson had written anything recent, she told them about the essays.

The editor read the essays and told her they could be made into a book. Dickinson wrote the book for Three Hills, a trade imprint for Cornell University Press.

“It’s about a very tough time in my life,” she said. “These essays seem to be something that resonates with readers who have lost someone, particularly a child and particularly by suicide. That’s the job I wanted to do, and it’s doing it.”

Dickinson mentioned that, before the book came out, and even before Jack’s death, she wished something would happen to her so she could have a “big personal project to write about.”

Then, she added, Jack’s passing happened.

“And it was horrible,” Dickinson said. “I realized this isn’t the kind of thing you wish upon yourself.”

When she wrote the essays, Dickinson wrote about things she had seen or experienced, including the landscape and birds. She noted Jack is on the periphery of the memoir but not at the center.

“He’s around the edges,” Dickinson said. “I [also] started thinking about the way I was brought up and what my parents were like. It kind of dives back and forth between the present and past while trying to move forward through this grief process.”

Dickinson said that she got through dealing with a loss and her grieving process, by reading and writing.

“It’s helpful to read about other people’s experiences [because] when Jack first died, that’s what I did,” Dickinson said, noting that she read other memoirs about loss.

For anyone looking to write a memoir, Dickinson noted that they’d “better be ready to interrogate” themselves.

“They need to figure out why you’re doing it and why it deserves to be in the world,” she said.

Dryden Dispatch appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.

In brief:

Holiday celebration, tree lighting this Saturday

The village and town of Dryden are partnering with the Southworth Library and 25 local businesses to bring the holiday celebration and tree lighting event to the area this Saturday.

The event will have crafts, free samples and treats, discounts and refreshments throughout the village. It will include:

• Dryden Agway’s holiday craft fair
• A gingerbread house competition by Station Creamery
• Original ornament making at the Southworth Estate at the Dryden Town Historical Society
• Free children’s holiday crafts at Dryden United Methodist Church and McCune, Murphy & Potter Physical Therapy
• Hot cocoa at First National Bank of Dryden or Arnold’s Flower Shop
• Cookies at Falcon Optical
• Tastings at Dryden Wine & Spirits
• Spirits of the Holidays, hosted by Hopshire Farm & Brewery with five local distilleries
• And more

The event will also include a Legends of the Holidays scavenger hunt to find ornaments and legends at various local businesses. Once the scavenger hunt is finished, findings can be brought to the library for a free ornament and an opportunity to win prizes donated by the community.

Santa will read stories at the library at 2:30 p.m., and a special sing-along with Santa follows at 3 p.m. Photos with Santa are from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. The library will also show a holiday film, “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree,” to go with a free book.

The event will have tractor-driven hayrides from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., which will leave from the library.

Other festivities include a live nativity scene by the Dryden Presbyterian Church, caroling with refreshments provided by the village and the fire department and s’mores at Time Square with the Dryden Recreation Department.

The day will wrap up with Santa’s arrival on a fire truck to light the tree.

For more information, and to see a full schedule of events and the scavenger hunt sheet, go to southworthlibrary.org.

Dryden Town Historical Society’s Holly Tour on Sunday

The Dryden Town Historical Society (DTHC) is hosting its annual Holly Tour from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The tour will include three homes and one business property decorated for the holidays. The homes will be two Victorians and one Greek Revival, and the business is in a late 19th-century barn.

The Victorian homes are located at 1477 and 1609 Dryden Rd. in the village of Dryden, and the Greek Revival cottage is on 5 Mill St. in the village of Freeville. The barn is located at 1610 Dryden Rd. in Dryden.

The event is a self-driving tour, and the order of stops is left up to the participants. A “Holly Tour” sign will be in front of each location.

Tickets are $10 per person. DTHC is asking those interested in the tour not to bring children. Tickets are available at the Southworth Homestead at 14 North St. from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday or at the door of each location on the day of the tour.

For more information, contact Mary Hornbuckle at (607) 898-3461.