South East Writers Inc (67th Public Meeting) Labrador Community and Youth Centre June 08th 2024 at 10am
57 Billington Street, Labrador, QLD 4215 – $10.00
Speaker: Dee Hanna
Deirdre started writing almost as soon she started reading. Her prizes for compositions at Tamworth Church of England Girls School were beautiful red leather books with gold binding and titles such as Little Women, Seven Little Australians, and Anne of Green Gables. After six years of being an only child, she suddenly noticed and resented newborn twin brothers who took up her mother’s time and energy.
Thus, she was packed off to holidays with her Aunt, a Deacon in the Church. There her love affair with all books spiritual began, such as the classics by Paul Gallico, The Snow Goose and The Small Miracle. The Littlest Angel, made her sob and lurid Bible story picture books terrified her. She became obsessed with death, which continued throughout her life and became her vocation. Deirdre became a chaplain to the dying, and has over thirty years experience in Palliative Care, Grief Education, Spirituality, Children’s Grief, Transpersonal Psychotherapy and Counselling, Spiritual Direction and Mindfulness Meditation.
Deirdre loves studying in order to enrich the lives of others, and her quest for purpose and meaning culminated in her establishing Hopewell Hospice for the dying, with her husband a Uniting Church Minister, Rev. Dr Ian Mavor. They also created Paradise Kids for dying and bereaved children. After Ian’s death in 2015, in the hospice they created, she continued his legacy and her vocation. She runs Women’s Groups, Exploring Spirituality Groups, Paradise Kids Australia Grief Groups, and also takes people on cruising retreats so that everyone can talk about death and dying at dinner.
She is fascinated with all things Integral, and has been studying the works of Philosopher Ken Wilber for many years. Furthermore, she has written Life Reflections, a book to reflect on while sitting at the bedside of a dying loved one, and The Last Resort a book, or maybe a memoir, about the founding of Hopewell Hospice. She has written thirteen children’s stories about grief and loss, based on William Worden’s Tasks of Mourning: Accepting the Loss; Feeling the Feelings; Adjusting to life without the beloved; and Resilience; created through relocating the loss within the body/mind/spirit.
The books are on Amazon and have so far raised $4.00. Her favourite reads are the daily New York Times, Integral Spirituality, and she spends her remaining relaxing hours reading psychological thrillers. She loves Nicci French and Alice Feeney at the moment and always the satirical works of Bill Bryson and David Sedaris and her new Bible is Stephen King’s Classic, On Writing, A Memoir of The Craft. Deirdre is excited to have joined The South East Queensland Writers Group and hopes to be able to learn from other like-minded writers.