Let Me Stay: A Memoir
By: Iris Douglas
This book is written to portray some very happy memories of a wonderful childhood growing up in the countryside in Ireland. It is an unsurpassed privilege to have been blessed with so much love and honesty and innocence, to have had bestowed upon me the magic of being alive and to have been shown a wide-eyed wonder and awe of the the beauty around me. The combination of the people rich in character and humor and the humility and strength of those same people to survive the back breaking work, the stress of how to make ends meet and of being exposed to the harshness of a cold, wet and windy winter's day, has transferred to me a positive and uplifting strength set by their example.
The lesson I have learned is to take life as it comes for there are many things over which we have no control. "Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill". No matter how bad one's day gets, there is always one small thing in the day that is good or beautiful or at least very nice. And that is what will save the day.
"The way a crow shook down on me
The dust of snow from a hemlock tree
Has given my heart a change of mood
And saved some part of a day I had rued".
About the Author
Iris Douglas was born and grew up in Ireland and emigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-three after having lived in Canada for two years. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Comparative Literature but worked for many years as a Research Technician in the Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry and Immunology departments at Yale University. For her last ten years at Yale, she was Laboratory Manager in the Department of Cell Biology. Due to an illness, Iris recently retired and has spent her time fighting her health battle as well as pursuing some of her interests such as reading, writing, drawing, cooking, listening to music and walking wooded trails. She has many friends who have helped her along the way to recovery and who bring great joy to her life. She lives with her very supportive and loving husband in Branford, Connecticut.
