This memoir's unsparing look at Leo and Cordelia Wright has bite and gravity. Two quiet people viewed through the lens of compassion offers fresh perspectives on the multiple causes and consequences of unspoken emotion. In 1912 the banker and the stenographer fell wildly in love. They were wed and buried her mother shortly before becoming proud parents. In 1929 Leo lost his livelihood and his pride. The prickly silences began.
In 1934 his jobless father abandoned his mother. The bank foreclosed, leaving Margaret Mary Wright homeless. Leo and Cordelia faced a tough decision. Eventually they packed his elderly mother off to Oregon's public institution for paupers. The silences increased in intensity and hostility
In 1942 Leo went to work building naval vessels in the Kaiser shipyard. A crime caused Cordelia to distrust him, dropping Leo into extended silences of longing, guilt and hoped-for reconciliation. In 1945 he was killed.
Cordelia, a widow now with two adolescents to support, sought divine assistance on how to make a living. Prayerful silence soon led to her support of orphaned Japanese schoolgirls, a radical commitment in racist post-war Oregon.
Across her lifespan my grandmother experienced shaming silence, bonding silence, confusing silence, punishing silence and, finally, revelatory silence. This memoir illustrates how the myriad facets of silence can impact personal and social relationships for harm or for healing.
About the Author: Judith Wright Favor, granddaughter of Leo and Cordelia, was born in Portland and raised in the rain. The author is still soothed by gray skies, moving waters and fluid processes. Married at nineteen, love's flow took her to California to raise two sons and a daughter before divorce. She worked in adoptions, flew airplanes, piloted hot-air balloons and taught psychology and human sexuality courses.
It wasn't until 1981 that she enrolled at Pacific School of Religion. She pastored United Church of Christ congregations in San Francisco until the ministries of spiritual formation and writing laid claim to her soul. She published The Edgefielders in 2012, Sabbath Economics in 2008 and Spirit Awakening in 1988, plus countless articles and reviews.
Happily remarried, she and Pete live at Pilgrim Place in Claremont, California. Her heart is enriched by her work in spiritual accompaniment, teaching and contemplative writing. To hone her craft, she values critiques from skilled writers. To stay fit she hikes, swims, race-walks and practices yoga, qigong and contemplative prayer. For fun she plays in lakes, creeks and ocean surf. For inspiration she listens to poetry and choral music, worships with Quakers and converses with fascinating friends, family and grandkids.
