Preface
When the words and images began to come to me, I rejected them. A year later, I rejected them yet again. Even now, I do not want to write this book.
But I hold these shards in my hands. Surfaces etched by memory. Images possessing the
power to pierce me. I do not understand what these fragments ask of me. I do not know whether a wholeness can be constructed from them.
I want to give you, the reader, a direct experience of the children I met and loved, but I cannot find a way to separate their journey from the intersection of time we shared together.
Every time I hesitate, turn away, the children insistently call to me, pull at my hands. And I have no voice but my own to answer them.
I do not understand what these fragments ask of me. I place them in your hands. Hold them gently.
Though I began my work at the University of Davis Medical Center as an evening volunteer storyteller, I later became a staff member, first as an arts program specialist and later as the child life director. Ironically, I came to this work without a medical background or even a background in child development. Instead, I experienced this environment as the parents and children experienced it–as another culture whose language and customs were foreign and often frightening. This perspective helped me shape many innovative art programs at a time when such programs were rare. The memoir’s structure includes narrative chapters and “portrait chapters” focused on individual children and my journey with them.
Thank you for your interest in my memoir. When purchasing information is available, I will post it here.
An excerpt from Shards of Memory, read by Victoria L. Davis: