NEW GLARUS - Pat Adams always wrote letters to her friends and family, but she may not have known how the recipients cherished those letters and held onto them, eventually leading to a published book of her journal entries and correspondences.
Adams, of New Glarus, died in March 2011, after a 15-year battle against cervical cancer. Three years later her eldest daughter Cate and a friend of Adams, Carole Turner, took it upon themselves to collect Adams' numerous letters and organize them into a 163-page book. Turner is a retired publisher and helped guide Cate in organizing, designing and finally publishing a book, "Fireflies at Twilight," in August.
Cate said her mother's letters were all hand-written until the cancer debilitated her so that she began emailing more often. Cate, a registered nurse, said her mother always found the bright side to any dark day.
"She had the gift of finding the best thing of that day," Cate said. "She would appreciate the cardinals in her backyard or whatever happened to be around."
Cate said her mother's writing dwelled on nature and intoned the current atmosphere of wherever Adams was writing, such as her "office," as Adams describes the commode where she wrote many emails. Adams' cats Minnie and Heck, the weather and whatever appeared out her window tend to show up in her letters.
"She wrote a lot about nature from the farm outside New Glarus and what was happening at that exact moment," Cate said.
In one of her letters to her mother, Adams was at a cabin they owned in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and spotted several men looking for turkeys, of which she saw eight fly out over a bluff. Adams wrote that the men had bagged two and how she "wished I could have one."
Later as the cancer progressed, Adams was given only months to live, but carried on well past that timeframe. As Adams described it to her mother in a letter, "(O)ur time now (is) dictated by appointments with health care professionals who see our problem more than they see us."
Adams lived with her husband Terry on a farm near New Glarus up to her last day and was an avid reader. Turner wrote in the foreword of "Fireflies at Twilight" that Adams "was more annoyed and irritated by cancer than ever stopped or labeled by the disease."
Turner said it took about a year to collect the letters and emails Adams had sent to her many friends and family over the years, and they left out hundreds of pieces that Adams had written. The book is divided into chapters according to who Adams was writing to - her mother, husband, four children and friends.
Turner said she was amazed at the reviews on Amazon; of the five reviews as of Thursday, nobody had rated the book fewer than five out of five stars.
"People that never even knew Pat have written nice things about the book," Turner said.
Turner and Adams were friends for about 37 years, and they kept in touch throughout Adams' life. Turner said she hopes the people who read Adams' book come away with a different perspective and note the different voices Adams adopted in describing her disease.
"Sometimes she is very matter-of-fact, but to her friends it was more emotional trying to accept the prognosis, and then sometimes it was really funny," Turner said.
"Fireflies at Twilight" is available online or at Tuvalu Coffeehouse in Verona.
Adams, of New Glarus, died in March 2011, after a 15-year battle against cervical cancer. Three years later her eldest daughter Cate and a friend of Adams, Carole Turner, took it upon themselves to collect Adams' numerous letters and organize them into a 163-page book. Turner is a retired publisher and helped guide Cate in organizing, designing and finally publishing a book, "Fireflies at Twilight," in August.
Cate said her mother's letters were all hand-written until the cancer debilitated her so that she began emailing more often. Cate, a registered nurse, said her mother always found the bright side to any dark day.
"She had the gift of finding the best thing of that day," Cate said. "She would appreciate the cardinals in her backyard or whatever happened to be around."
Cate said her mother's writing dwelled on nature and intoned the current atmosphere of wherever Adams was writing, such as her "office," as Adams describes the commode where she wrote many emails. Adams' cats Minnie and Heck, the weather and whatever appeared out her window tend to show up in her letters.
"She wrote a lot about nature from the farm outside New Glarus and what was happening at that exact moment," Cate said.
In one of her letters to her mother, Adams was at a cabin they owned in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and spotted several men looking for turkeys, of which she saw eight fly out over a bluff. Adams wrote that the men had bagged two and how she "wished I could have one."
Later as the cancer progressed, Adams was given only months to live, but carried on well past that timeframe. As Adams described it to her mother in a letter, "(O)ur time now (is) dictated by appointments with health care professionals who see our problem more than they see us."
Adams lived with her husband Terry on a farm near New Glarus up to her last day and was an avid reader. Turner wrote in the foreword of "Fireflies at Twilight" that Adams "was more annoyed and irritated by cancer than ever stopped or labeled by the disease."
Turner said it took about a year to collect the letters and emails Adams had sent to her many friends and family over the years, and they left out hundreds of pieces that Adams had written. The book is divided into chapters according to who Adams was writing to - her mother, husband, four children and friends.
Turner said she was amazed at the reviews on Amazon; of the five reviews as of Thursday, nobody had rated the book fewer than five out of five stars.
"People that never even knew Pat have written nice things about the book," Turner said.
Turner and Adams were friends for about 37 years, and they kept in touch throughout Adams' life. Turner said she hopes the people who read Adams' book come away with a different perspective and note the different voices Adams adopted in describing her disease.
"Sometimes she is very matter-of-fact, but to her friends it was more emotional trying to accept the prognosis, and then sometimes it was really funny," Turner said.
"Fireflies at Twilight" is available online or at Tuvalu Coffeehouse in Verona.