“ I feel that I was forced to take a good look at my relationship with my parents,” Hedderman says.“ I want to know more about their story and what their life has been like. It’ s exciting and entertaining to hear stories that I’ ve never heard about what life was like during their childhood.”
The cover of the book features a photograph of her maternal grandparents who always shared great stories from their lives.
“ I thought this picture symbolized what I wanted to capture— the old car, the clothing styles... the fact that they were teenagers, newlyweds and parents before I knew them as Granny and Pappaw,” Hedderman explains.“ I learned a lot from both of them.”
“ Remembering Together” also includes information about caregiving and making important legal or medical decisions as well as dealing with grief. While writing the book, Hedderman says she learned more about Medicare and Medicaid than she ever wanted to know.
Her second book was a natural
“ You can talk to someone for years and really not know about their life or how they grew into the person they are today.” progression from her first title,“ Preparing Your Children for Goodbye: A Guidebook for Dying Parents,” which was published in 2011. Hedderman wrote it after she learned that a friend with two young children had terminal cancer.“ Preparing Your Children for Goodbye” offers advice to terminally ill parents on recording their memories and helping their children cope with death.
“ I thought a memory book would help her leave stories and advice for her sons,” Hedderman says.“ It soon expanded to talking to children as well as caring for self and family.” In addition, everyone processes grief in his or her own way.“ In the case of siblings, one child may behave in a different manner from another,” she notes. Hedderman has been a school counselor for 18 years and currently works at Canonsburg Middle School. She has worked with many children who have experienced loss and has facilitated bereavement and support groups for more than eight years. Hedderman says it can be difficult to deal continuously with death and grief, but she tries to focus on the hope and love that individuals leave behind for survivors.
Hedderman wants her third book to be something more lighthearted or humorous.“ I want to step away from the serious side of life,” she says. She learned a lot about writing, editing and publishing while working on her first book. That experience made it much easier to write“ Remembering Together.” Hedderman advises aspiring writers to take on topics that are important to them, not what they think they should be writing about.
For more information, visit lorihedderman. com. ■
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