This comment popped up on my timeline last week: ‘Sue’s book (Changing Lightbulbs) literally changed my life. Easy to read, this heart-warming story of a personal journey is wonderful’.
To that reader, thank you. I’m humbled and beyond joyful that my book changed your life. May you continue to live in the light. 🌟
Writing the book also changed my life, in ways I could never have imagined.💡
To all my readers, the book clubs who invited me to attend their events, thank you. To those who took the time to send or post feedback, and share something of your own stories, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support. Your words were a precious gift and made me cry, in a very good way!
I love hearing other people’s stories. Stories matter. They bind us together by sharing our common humanity and teach us that we are never alone. 📚
Here is just one of many emails I received this year:
‘Dear Sue
I have been meaning to email you for some time to say thank you and tell you a story about your book, Changing Lightbulbs. I found your thoughtful dialogue about your journey through depression funny, heartbreaking and real.
I don’t suffer from depression but I walk beside my two beautiful adult children who do. Reading your book, I began to understand the guilt associated with having so much to be grateful for but still feeling like shit.
I am a nurse and like to fix and heal things – and one of the hardest things for me as a mother is to walk beside my children and let them experience all that depression has to offer them without trying to hide or fix it. In fact, reminding them that there is so much good in this world can make it even harder.
I was part way through your book when I had a lovely conversation with my son about some of the funny anecdotes you had told. What interested him most was that finally someone had written a book about how it was, living with depression, rather than a self-help manual, to make it better.
The book was in my car at the time and then all of a sudden it was gone … Fast forward 2 weeks and I find the book on my son’s bedside table. I chose to leave it there and I figured you wouldn’t mind. In fact, I think it’s kind of cool to have written something so worthy of stealing!
This email took a long time to write… now it’s time to share my appreciation of your courageous story and thank you for sharing it with our family.’
What a wonderful testament to the healing power of words and stories. Reading, writing and speaking were three of the key factors in my healing and recovery from depression. Finding my voice changed my life. 🦋
You can read all about my journey from darkness to light in Changing Lightbulbs, and you can email me on info@suetredget.com to book me as a speaker for an event in 2019.
