The Timkens of San Diego

Rising from a blacksmith’s apprentice to become king of the roller bearing, Henry Timken was one of the 19^th century’s greatest inventors.

His early engineering of axles, springs, and ball bearings for horse-drawn carriages made him rich. But his 1898 patent of a tapered roller bearing revolutionized transportation and made the German immigrant and his family uber rich.

In 1887, with his greatest invention still ahead of him, Timken retired to San Diego with his wife, Fredericka, and four of their five children. All would become wealthy from his patents and lead lives that often cast them in the nation’s headlines.

The three daughters made their niche in the art world.

Amelia founded the San Diego Museum of Art and resuscitated the symphony. Georgia studied art in Paris and St. Louis and married her art teacher. Eight of her paintings hang in the National Gallery of Art.

Cora became an ardent painter and a major collector of art from Persia, China, and India. The Metropolitan Museum of Art lists 133 objects from her. At age 47 she married an osteopathic doctor-scientist 15 years younger who was obsessed with the idea of curing illnesses through electromagnetism.

The sons, H.H. and W.R., took turns running the Timken empire and expanding it globally. H.H. became one of the wealthiest men in America.

Suitcase of Memories

I was destined to be a peacemaker. Doesn’t every family have one?

My family, with its traditional values, loving grandparents, and family heirlooms, has always provided a comfortable base and a home. My expectations were that my home and family would be safe, cozy, and unwavering.

What of words translated by a peacemaker, certain it was for me too? No protests, make a loving family, keep the peace. I was convinced it would be mine.

What of words from love, prideful of my values, celebrating my accomplishments, joyful for my happiness, and hopeful for my future?

Seasons change, years pass. I remember joyous moments of splendid solace with so much hopeful anticipation. I’ve learned one can search for serendipity, but it cannot be contrived. I remain hopeful beyond possibility.

What of words of hurtful intention—stinging, humiliating, torturous, and demeaning, as intended?

I am the peacemaker.

I must not be defeated.

Life Threads – A Memoir

The core of this illuminating memoir consists of threads of consistency and learning that have emerged through Carol’s life experiences. We learn, as she and her sister Linda did, of the constructive optimism of their parents and how that mindset underlies successfully facing life’s struggles. Mistakes can be overcome. The burdens lift. Life is meant for living.

With well-balanced sensitivity and striking honesty, she frankly reveals the false starts in her career and her love life and how things worked out in the end. We gain perspective, as she did, through spirited tales of her life experiences.

Heart-wrenching events mix with moments of light, hope, and relief. Even the death of loved ones, people, and dogs doesn’t have to be a downward pull, as Carol learned from her dad.

Carol has found that angels have an impact on our experiences, too. Although she has never seen an angel, her dogs saw several one evening.

Her experiences in finally finding and settling into her career, her love life, and several events that didn’t seem significant, and some that did, all seem to fit together to form those surfacing life threads.

Finding May

And there she sat. Legs crossed with eyes straight as an arrow.

The sun slipped inches at a mile behind Snow Recreation Center on the eleventh of October, two thousand and two. John met May in the hustle of his happy, full life. Pausing the daily exercising. Exchanging numbers and smiles, the two briefly tucked away from time. Centrum to Eastern Michigan’s heart, ideation began blooming. Tracing began—Finding May and John adoring each other’s warmth inside—if only for two minutes.

Two minutes that day, seconds later next month as John reached a suicidal breaking point, and months forward into 2004.

The girl he was destined to barely know. A Monet-traced beauty. Kind. Sweetly adorable. A thousand budding, poetic lines incapable of capturing May’s immediate place in John’s mind. She’d try to save his life with these two minutes, and later eleven seconds, of her time. A northern star streaking across the Vanilla Sky.

The Last Sunset

On a beach in Florida is a mysterious manuscript written and left there by an unnamed narrator who’s eager for somebody to know his life story. Starting with his first day of kindergarten, the narrator holds nothing back in sharing the important moments, as well as the moments he only now realizes have had a big impact on his life. The narrator tells of his mishaps as a child, his troubled teen years, a devastating heartbreak, a frustrating illness, and his struggles to find his place in the world as an adult. Taking place in an era before smartphones and before mental illness was discussed openly, the narrator looks back on everything that has gone wrong in his life, the things he could have done differently, and how it has all led to the most difficult decision of his life.

Therapized

Therapists are human too.

They cry in the shower, spiral at 2 a.m., and occasionally eat an entire bag of chips while rewatching the same comfort show—just like everyone else.

In Therapized, Anne Petraro—a licensed therapist, educator, and unapologetic dog mom—opens up not just as a professional, but as a person who’s lived through trauma, healing, and everything in between (with snacks in her pocket and dog hair on her clothes).

Part memoir, part guided journal, this book invites you into the real, raw, and sometimes ridiculous process of being human. Through deeply personal stories and powerful journaling prompts, Anne helps you stop striving to be “fixed” and start accepting what it means to be fully, beautifully, imperfectly real.

You’ll laugh, cry, maybe throw the book across the room—but most importantly, you’ll feel seen. Not as a diagnosis or a label, but as someone deeply worthy of healing and joy.

Written with heart, grit, and enough dog hair to knit a sweater, Therapized is for the over-thinkers, the people-pleasers, the trauma survivors, and the ones still trying to make sense of it all. You don’t need to have it all together to begin. You just need to show up.

Let Therapized be the place you finally do.

September 21

Life doesn’t have to be tough, but sometimes our choices can lead us down difficult paths. Influenced by my surroundings, I ventured beyond my comfort zone, only to make poor decisions that veered me away from my true self and my goals. These choices left me in a less-than-ideal situation, a reminder that life is replete with ups and downs. Perfection is an illusion, but overcoming obstacles is within our grasp. It’s about steering ourselves toward where we aspire to be, capturing our dreams in the process. Once there, we’re in a prime position to extend a hand to others, guiding them towards betterment just as we have achieved for ourselves. This journey is a testament to the power of resilience and the importance of staying true to oneself.

Dying Is a Journey, Living Is a Privilege

After receiving his terminal cancer diagnosis, Gary F. Kelly wanted to prepare for dying and find meaning in the experience. His memoir recounts his journey from the initial visit to see his doctor about some unusual discomfort and fatigue through his days of hospice care to the death that he imagines. He shares his gratitude when a compassionate nurse squeezes his hand as a needle is inserted into his liver and his anguish when his difficulty swallowing makes eating and drinking nearly impossible.

Kelly cherishes the comforting family rituals of Thanksgiving and Christmas, marks such milestones as no longer being able to drive, and records the uncertain rhythms of terminal illness as new cancer sites appear, symptoms multiply, and the debilitating effects of treatment increase.

Along this journey of dying, he wrestles with: What can he learn? Can he find meaning and value in dying comparable to that which he found in living? How does he face the end of life with dignity and grace? As a therapist says to him, “Dying is hard work.”

Split from Reality

What happens when you realize the foundation of everything you knew about yourself and life in general is shattered? How do you cope when it’s found that your own mind, and even reality itself, is playing tricks on you? Is it even possible to adapt to a bizarre, unforgiving, and even horrifying mindscape?

These challenging questions and others will be explored in this book. This autobiography tells a tale of a young man as he struggles to function in life while experiencing very unusual circumstances. The tale explains his experience while battling some of the most disturbing psychotic thoughts.

This is a story of wonder, extreme challenges, and eventual plateau into some form of success. This book not only demonstrates the problems and stressors common with the illness called schizophrenia but also highlights methods, techniques, and useful solutions to some of the most challenging and slippery mental conundrums that one might encounter during psychosis.

Married to the Foreign Service

Born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1931, and orphaned at an early age, Evelyn Lee Dyer joined the US Foreign Service in the mid-1950s and soon found herself in the heart of the Cold War, among bustling diplomatic communities in Istanbul, Bonn, Prague, Leningrad, Moscow, and Geneva, as well as in Washington, DC, and often in crisis conditions. She tells her story in an unpretentious style, filled with vivid anecdotes and character descriptions, with a feeling for the grand sweep of history as lived through by ordinary people.

There are plenty of Cold War memoirs by public figures, most of them men. This memoir by a working-class Southern woman brings to life an entire generation of postwar Americans, whose destinies followed an upward arc from the regional into the global.

Long Waka with Jesus

In Long Waka with Jesus, Dr Gaston Nyabul di Kanza Mabaya retraces his steps from the days when he was a young lector and altar server in the Church in Yasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo), through the academic halls of Belgium, to the pulpits of the Roman Catholic Diocese of London in Canada.

It sometimes happens in our lives that we wonder about God’s presence. We ask ourselves a thousand and one questions. Why, for instance, does God allow this or that to happen? In Dr Mabaya’s case, the question arose several times. On each occasion, God proved to be present and faithful. Like most of us, he often asked himself this question again and again: “Where has my God gone?” especially when knowing how difficult a situation could be.

Long Waka with Jesus brings to light all the blessings which have encompassed the world of Dr Gaston Nyabul di Kanza Mabaya throughout his life.

Whatever stage you are at spiritually, you need to examine your life with God in a private moment of recollection. You will discover His marvels. He is among us, His children, waiting for us to make ourselves available and take His hand, which He offers us graciously. He will show you what is most meaningful in your life.

He loves you. In His company, none of you would feel alone. His love is unwavering.

Through Less Than Perfect Eyes

Through Less Than Perfect Eyes follows the life journey of Keith Canty, exploring the challenges and triumphs he faced from childhood to adulthood. Raised by a single mother in a low-income household, Keith encountered many trials and tribulations along the way.

This book reveals how he persevered through adversity, overcoming obstacles that seemed insurmountable. Through it all, his unwavering belief in the Creator of the Multiverse became his source of strength, guiding him through life’s hardships.

A story of resilience, faith, and determination, Through Less Than Perfect Eyes is an inspiring testament to the power of perseverance and belief in something greater.