The detachment is pleased to invite Becky Ellis, who is a Timberwolf Pup, to our April 29^th meeting to do a reading from her new book “Little Avalanches,” a memoir about her father, a highly decorated World War II combat sergeant of the famed Pacific Northwest Timberwolf 104^th Infantry Division. It’s a fascinating story about the war he brought home with him and how it affected his and her relationship.  Afterward, she will sign ten copies of her book and hand them out. You can also buy her book “Little Avalanches,” on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble after March 12^th and read it before our April meeting.

Little Avalanches will take you on a journey from the beaches of France in 1944 to the liberation of German concentration camps in 1945 to the impact this journey had on the one who loved her Dad most.  

Take the time to sit down and read this fascinating story about growing up in the shadow of her father’s PTSD, yearning to know his demons but knowing better than to ask. Seeing only the volatile and perilous effects of the scars of war that burdened him, she distanced herself from the man she wanted to love. When her 90-year-old father became vulnerable, she finally asked him about the war. Knowing it was time to speak of his demons, after seventy years of silence, he opened his wound and revealed his truth about his war without glory.

Many of us will be able to empathize with her story.  We do not know how many we have touched with our PTSD. PTSD grows worse as we grow older. Many of us are yearning to unload the burden of our war experiences when age and circumstance make us vulnerable. Knowing our time is limited on earth, as our final reckoning, we want to talk about the wound that forever scarred our souls. All we need is someone willing to listen. Becky was that someone for her father, who listened and understood the demons she inherited. She spent the next several years interviewing, researching, and ultimately writing their story.

Be sure to be at the meeting on April 29^th to hear a portion of the story and meet Becky, the one who was willing to listen.