Escape Points: A Memoir by Michele Weldon
Award-winning journalist Michele Weldon provides a potent antidote to the harried single mom stereotype in this beguiling memoir of raising three sons alone in the face of cancer, an ambitious career, and the shadow of her ex. Untethered from a seemingly idyllic life with a handsome but abusive attorney husband, Weldon relates the challenges and…
Award-winning journalist Michele Weldon provides a potent antidote to the harried single mom stereotype in this beguiling memoir of raising three sons alone in the face of cancer, an ambitious career, and the shadow of her ex.Untethered from a seemingly idyllic life with a handsome but abusive attorney husband, Weldon relates the challenges and triumphs of the years that followed her divorce as she maneuvers through a complicated life of long daily commutes, radiation treatments, supporting the boys’ all-consuming high school wrestling careers, and trying to mitigate their hurt and resentment at an absent father.
By turns humorous and heartbreaking, Weldon describes facing her fears and failures honestly, guided by a belief in the power of staying calm, doing one’s best, and asking for help. She provides a graceful example of how a single mother, and her children, can succeed when others—neighbors, family, teachers, and in this case an incredible high school wrestling coach—step in to fill the void and she can stay the course with common sense and dutiful love.
“A must-read for all parents”
Five Star Review on Amazon By Caryn Ward
As a friend and colleague of Michele Weldon’s I lived through many of the events of the book and am amazed at how well she captured the poignancy and power of the turning points in her life and the lives of her boys. I am also the mother of three sons and wish I’d had a book like this while I raised them. It’s a great read that’s chock full of anecdotes that will have most parents shaking their heads in agreement the highs and lows of helping your children grow up.
About the Author
Michele Weldon was born June 5, 1958, the youngest of six in less than eight years. She inherited the “Juvenile Journal” from her older sister Madeleine, a publishing empire of monthly mimeographed newsletters sent to 50 relatives for 50 cents a year.
A journalist for newspapers and magazines for more than 35 years, Weldon has written thousands of articles and columns as a magazine editor and newspaper columnist writing for Chicago Tribune, CNN, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, TIME, Slate, Medium, More, Al Jazeera, Christian Science Monitor and more. She has an ebook memoir excerpt, “Just Me and My Three Sons,” (Shebooks) released September 2014. Her updated full memoir, “Escape Points: A Memoir” (Chicago Review Press) is out in hardcover in September 2015.
Weldon is assistant professor emerita at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. She is director of the Northwestern Public Voices Fellowship and was co-director of TEDxNorthwestern 2014. She also was a leader of Youth Narrating Our World for Chicago Public high school students, funded by The McCormick Foundation.
Her first book, “I Closed My Eyes” (Hazelden, 1999) has been translated into seven languages and the 2012 edition contains a new foreword and updated text. Weldon’s second book,”Writing to Save Your Life” (Hazelden, 2001) is a prescriptive book on the power of expressive, personal writing, that has been the source of Weldon’s writing workshops for the last 15 years. The 2012 edition contains a new foreword and new essays.