This preoccupation didn't surface till I quit my job of 24 years. A feeling: that I had disappeared to safety, while my friends were all still fighting the good fight at work. This sense of exile intersected with a new interest in my family history.

3.2.04 Retiree... Or Expatriate?

5.11.05 Romance of the Exile

8.19.04 Proposed: World Immigrants' Day

5.6.05: Leaving Your Country: Where Is "Home" After All?

3.17.05: Women: Irish Emigration's Bold Leading Edge

10.1.04: Expatriates: Social Outcasts & Political Exiles

Various Family History entries

The Postcards

Front (top) and Back (below)

An outcome of my exile feeling was the beginning of a story told in postcards and letters -- a correspondence between Maddie, who abandoned her job of many years, and Stella, who remains behind. I got an interesting start in creating the correspondence, but then went off in a different direction.