Author Meet & Greet: Julia Stewart

On August 6 at 6:00 PM, Julia Stewart discusses I Have a Question: A Tormented Journey to Language, the memoir her mother wrote about Julia’s own childhood journey through a painful, traumatic illness that left her struggling physically and emotionally.  Books will be available for purchase and signing after Julia’s talk.

Register online or by calling 412-269-0334.

Summary: I Have a Question? is a poignant mother/daughter narrative that began as an exhaustive search to determine the origins and therefore the answers to multiple medical irregularities that entail the story of Julie, a remarkably determined young lady, whose only goal was to be accepted as the perceptive and intelligent person she indeed is. She wanted to be “Normal,” like the three brothers who provided much of the early window of her world. Most of all, she wanted more than anything else to go to school. Her early development was noted for its steady and eager progress until a seemingly ordinary infection shortly before her second birthday turned the happy placid child into a screaming terror, unable to eat or sleep. Her weight dwindled to eighteen pounds whereupon she was prescribed a bottle-fed diet which included massive doses of Vitamin C, Niacin, B6, and B12–and large areas of Julie were covered with an angry burn like rash for six full months. The child became well then, as suddenly as she had become ill, though her growth would continue in the lower 10th percentile, and her language would now display only the repetition of the rote words learned in speech classes. Julie’s experiences over the long and lonely years give important insight into the suppressed anger often seen in school yard violence, just as Julie’s victories affirm the efforts of those who try harder to understand.

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