Open Book Club presents Author Caroline Patterson

SEELEY LAKE - Doesn't every family have its secrets? Some bigger than others? Six years ago, I was sitting with author Caroline Patterson on the front porch of her cabin at Pierce Lake sharing our family secrets. I told Caroline of a half-sister I didn't know I had until I was 16 years old. And she shared an amazing story from her family – also of a sister whose existence was a carefully guarded family secret.

This family story she skillfully crafted as her latest, highly praised novel "The Stone Sister." Patterson will be presenting it at Alpine Artisans' Open Book Club on Saturday, Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Foundation Building in Seeley Lake. Everyone is welcome and the event is free.

Set in Western Montana in the1950's and 60's, "The Stone Sister" is told from the perspective of three characters. Robert Carter is a newly married man who, along with his wife, agreed to commit their newborn, Downs Syndrome daughter to an institution, a common practice at that time. That child endures life in that institution for the 'mentally retarded.' However she benefits from the close attention of a nurse Louise Gustafson who cared deeply for her. This family secret is eventually uncovered by that child's sister Elizabeth Carter, a journalist, as she rigorously searches for her lost sister decades after her birth.

Patterson's wrenching family story reveals a backstory of the actual state mental institution that was the home for many of Montana's mentally disabled children, the Boulder School for the Mentally Retarded. As Patterson states in her author's note, "Every person in this story is part of a larger narrative about the terrible, dehumanizing treatment of individuals who had any kind of condition that was not understood by medicine in the twentieth century. We were cogs in a wheel of fear: me, my sister, my parents, the doctors and the nurses who were trying to do the best they could at the time."

Societal attitudes towards the developmentally disabled have changed significantly since the 1950's but this history is well documented by Patterson.

As stated by author Anne Patchett, "In 'The Stone Sister,' Caroline Patterson tells the moving story of how the decisions we make shape our lives and define our future. Beautifully written and compassionately told, this is a novel that will stay with me for a long, long time."

Join us Saturday evening to meet Patterson and hear this fascinating story, which has a surprise ending. She is also the director of the Missoula Writing Collaborative, a non-profit organization which has placed professional writers in our local schools for years, helping our students to find their voice as writers.