Bøker av Sue Skilton Orrell

In 1968, as Sue Skilton Orrell left her hometown, DeLand, Florida, she felt that the turmoil in her personal life was as chaotic as the widespread social and political unrest reported in the national news headlines. Despite the history that made her opt to stay away for over 54 years, she completed her formal education, built a successful career in Music Education, and dated every time she was single. Catastrophic weather events that impacted Houston and the onset of night driving limitation led Sue to consider returning to DeLand, the hometown she had never stopped missing. With resolute courage reinforced by numerous friends, family members, and strangers, she faced every decision and challenge to sell her house in Houston, buy another house in DeLand, and make the move within three months after first seriously considering the possibility of reclaiming the bucolic charm of DeLand, home of Stetson University, her undergraduate alma mater. This collection of short stories and journal entries covers the topics of Travel, Teaching, and Dating in Part One. Part Two addresses Weather, Real Estate, and Release. Sue links the topics by reflecting upon their effects on her personal growth, which enabled her ultimately to follow the path home and to be at peace not only within herself, but also in her hometown. For example, rather than writing a typical travelogue that stresses the geographical or cultural aspects of an area, she explored the dynamics of personal relationships and accidental adventures that occurred during some of her trips.

Youngest sister of three and older sister of one brother, author Sue Skilton Orrell felt her parents' admonition to "act mature" as a restraint against normal childhood feelings. She wished she could cry out like the Florida panthers that circulated on her family's rural property, but obeying the admonition prevented her from doing so. This default setting of denial intensified tragically within the more generalized culture of silence when she hit adolescence. When Orrell was raped twice as a young teenager, she found no immediate supporters--except herself. Orrell channeled her stubbornness into getting a good education, even though the academic challenge almost gave way to the weight of shame, depression, and false guilt. Now, she has taken on the strength of the panther with renewed spirit, bursting creativity, and power of voice clearly audible, no longer afraid to cry. Cries of the Panther on Mockingbird Hill is for anyone affected by sexual abuse, either directly or indirectly. May the voice of all survivors of any type of abuse be heard by sympathetic ears, and may those who hear have courage to act.