My Story: A Memoir in Poetry and Prose

by Katherine Billings Palmer

Overview

From the author of I Wanted to Grow Old With You and A Widow's Words comes a new collection of empowering poems and essays focused on life, love, and gaining wisdom and self-confidence as we age.

My Story is a compelling memoir composed of more than one hundred poems and essays that explore the author's life, inner conflict, and eventual journey to self-acceptance. This often poignant and frequently humorous collection explores issues that plagued the author in her childhood and teens and how the birth of her son became the catalyst that pushed her to triumph over anxiety, self-sabotage, and negative self-image, and ultimately to a journey of self-discovery.

The memoir touches on profound themes including generational trauma, anxiety, and widowhood, but also captures the joys of motherhood, the delights of love and marriage, valuable life lessons, and overcoming our inner critic to achieve body positivity and self-love.

Seniors will especially appreciate the poems devoted to the unpredictability of dating over sixty, the joys of grandparenting, and coming to terms with aging.

Beautifully written, My Story is an honest personal account of one woman's life journey that will resonate with anyone who has battled lifetime insecurities to achieve personal growth, self-acceptance, and inner peace.

A perfect gift for:

• Poetry lovers
• Women and men of all ages
• Seniors coming to terms with aging
• Anyone in search of positive and empowering books
• Gift-givers in search of unique presents

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LOST IN TRANSLATION

If love languages are a real thing  
Then my father and I
Were from different countries
He was from the land of

You have a roof over your head
And food on the table
And want for nothing
While I work overtime to pay for it

On my one day off, I cut the lawn
Before cooking the Sunday dinner
And when you're older, and your son has no dad,
I'll fill that role, too

But I was from a different land
Starved for affirmation
Aware of every criticism
Longing for words he rarely said

I needed to hear  
"I love you"
And now, I understand
That's exactly what he was saying

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DNA

I view the whole picture
Chance and fate

The ancestors who met
While living their own journeys

Some desired a new land
And channeled the wind in their sails

In pursuit of better lives
And promising futures

Scottish
German
English
Irish
French
Canadian

That all of them
collided and became
the great constellation
of my ancestry

Seems miraculous

I am the product of
A million split-second decisions
By hundreds of forebears

Those lucky survivors of
storms, wars
famines, and
plagues

We are the result of
centuries
of
love
stories

Suddenly, I feel
Uniquely meant to be

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Katherine Billings Palmer is an author, poet, essayist, and retired technical writer from Garden City, Michigan. Her essays have won numerous writing awards and she's been published in Westland Writes and the Bear River Review. Following her husband's death, she published two books about her struggles to cope with grief: I Wanted to Grow Old With You and A Widow's Words. She is a guest blogger for the Hope for Widows Foundation and writes about her grief journey at www.TheWritingWidow.com. Her biography and blog can be found at www.TheWritingWoman.com. She also posts and reads her poetry on Tiktok @thewritingwoman.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940184601380
Publisher:	Katherine Billings Palmer
Publication date:	03/22/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Katherine Billings Palmer is an author, poet, essayist, and retired technical writer from Garden City, Michigan. Her latest book, My Story: A Memoir in Poetry and Prose is a compelling memoir composed of more than one hundred poems and essays that explore the author’s life, inner conflict, and eventual journey to self-acceptance. The often poignant and frequently humorous collection explores issues that plagued the author in her childhood and teens and how the birth of her son became the catalyst that pushed her to triumph over anxiety, self-sabotage, and negative self-image, and ultimately to a journey of self-discovery.

The memoir touches on profound themes including generational trauma, anxiety, and widowhood, but also captures the joys of motherhood, the delights of love and marriage, the intricacies of dating as a senior, valuable life lessons, and overcoming our inner critic to achieve body positivity and self-love.

Katherine's essays and poems have been published in Westland Writes and the Bear River Review. She has also won several academic writing awards, including first place in the University of Michigan Dearborn Critical Essay Contest for her work about poet John Donne: “’The Sun Rising’: A Lover’s Boast.”

She published a series of three books about her struggles to cope with grief following her husband's death from lung cancer:

A Widow’s Words, Year One: Grief, Reflection, Prose, and Poetry
A Widow’s Words, Year Two: Grief, Reflection, Prose, Poetry, and Hope
A Widow’s Words, The Later Years: Grief, Reflection, Prose, Poetry, and Peace

She also published a small book of poetry: I Wanted to Grow Old With You: A Widow's First Year of Grief in Poetry.

Known as "The Writing Widow," Katherine is a guest blogger for the Hope for Widows Foundation. Her biography and blog can be found at her website: TheWritingWoman. She also posts her prose and poetry on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, and Substack @thewritingwoman.