Local author Katie Hammond opens up about her memoir
When Katie’s middle son Josh was diagnosed with leukaemia, her world was turned upside down basically in the middle of a school run. Through the long hours spent in the hospital caring for Josh, Katie took to writing to process everything. She has put together her words as a memoir for readers. Her wish is to help us see that even in the darkest of times there is beauty to be found.
We sat down with Katie as she shared her process for writing this book as well as a bit about her life in the Southern Highlands with her husband Scott and sons, Ollie, Josh [spoiler alert: Josh is now an 11 year old healthy, happy kiddo] and Albie.
1:: Hi Katie, can you tell us about how you came to the Southern Highlands?
So we’ve lived in the Highlands for seven years. When we first moved here I was eight and three-quarters months pregnant with my third son, and I think it was a bit of an advantage. Everyone is so friendly when you have a massive bump. Complete strangers just come over and ask excitedly, who are you, when are you due? They feel they can chat and that was so welcoming and friendly.
Then within a year, Josh was diagnosed with leukaemia, and it was like the community stepped up even more, especially friends and family. We were really thrown straight into the thick of it.
2:: Is that when you started writing your book?
It started organically just when we were in hospital. The treatment is incredibly fast-paced, but there is a lot of sitting around and watching as the nurses and doctors care for your child. So initially I started reading (and eating far too much chocolate!) but soon I realised one of the best things to help me manage the relentless fear and stress was writing down what was happening.
It helped so much, processing it all by writing. I love the feeling of getting it out of me and into words, straight from my heart. And there’s satisfaction in making sure that the writing was correct and finding just the right words to really communicate to a reader what it felt like in that moment.
Then as I was doing it, I found myself observing things happening around us in the hospital setting, noticing how truly incredible the nurses and the doctors were, and also moments of genuine humour, joy even, despite the overwhelmingly frightening setting.
It felt like we were catapulted into a kind of parallel universe in the hospital that had existed this whole time and I had no idea that it was there. I had never really given it any thought. I started writing about it, mainly for myself, and I just called it ‘my writing’ and didn’t tell anyone.
3:: So when did you decide to tell someone?
Towards the end of Josh’s two years of chemo, I asked my husband Scott to read some of my writing. Firstly he couldn’t put it down, and then he said, “You’re kind of writing a book here.” I hadn’t thought about it like that until that point, but then I realised I had been, I’d been writing to a reader, as though I was talking to a friend.
Things then came to a halt for a while as once Josh finished his treatment we took some time to breathe and begin the slow process of decompressing from what we had been through.
I didn’t have an ending yet, because even though Josh had rung the bell (children in the oncology world ring a huge brass bell to mark the end of treatment, an incredible moment) I knew that this was more than just a story about a child with cancer, I wanted this to be something which spoke to anyone who had been through anything tough or was feeling afraid. Then suddenly one morning in the mayhem of trying to get everyone out of the door to school and work, the ending just came, it was almost like the universe showing me I was ready.
5:: Tell us more about how you came up with the name for the book?
Like I said, this world inside the hospital was like a different world to our lives outside, and every time I went in I remember thinking, I need to put on a metaphorical hospital shield or jacket to prepare myself.
Then one day a nurse who was in the room with us said, “You say thank you all the time!” and I realised it was actually a huge, swirling cloak of gratitude I was wearing.
So during those tough days when I just wanted to hide under a duvet and not see anybody, I would bundle myself up in my metaphorical gratitude cloak and hide in it. But also on the good days the cloak would feel light and gleaming, and I knew we were doing okay.
6:: But you had an alternative title for the book, right?
Yes! The alternative title that I considered for it was ‘Yesterday is heavy, put it down’, but I thought it might be too long, and maybe not uplifting enough. I remember hearing that phrase during the COVID lockdowns and it really resonated with me.
To me it’s the idea that we experience something traumatic, then we process the experience, and then you put it down and move forward without it weighing you down forever. That’s not to say that you kind of shove it under the carpet and ignore that it happened, quite the opposite.
It’s just that I don’t want to feel that we carry it with us all the time and that it’s heavy, and that it affects the day to day now. We can be light. I see this so much in Josh as he is so resilient and tough but also just a regular, happy boy.
7:: What are your hopes for anyone reading the book?
I hope that it’s relatable and strengthens human connections as well. It’s been wonderful getting feedback from readers saying they cried big fat tears, but they also laughed out loud! I’ve tried to hang on very strongly to that feeling that there’s a reason for writing and sharing this story, and I hope it can help people. Not just people who are going through the same thing but anyone going through anything tough.
I also want to share that there’s so much good out there, to steal a phrase from a wonderful movie, I call it the collateral beauty. Through all the big worries, we can keep hold of the sense that there is such kindness in humans. And also the healthcare system that we have in Australia is just phenomenal.
If my book encourages more kindness and empathy and compassion, even if it’s just to a handful of people, then we can feel like his experience wasn’t just meaningless suffering you know, it had a purpose.
8:: And Josh?
Before I decided to publish, I asked Josh his thoughts on the book and he said, “Do it if it will help people, it’s really cool. And if it means that people donate to the charities who helped us then that’s also really cool.” Josh is proud that he beat leukaemia, and we try to go back to our local hospital and the mothership in Sydney at Easter and Christmas and give treats to the nurses and the children on the wards. The hospitals were our world for a long time, we will always appreciate them.
9:: Has Josh read the book?
Recently he asked to read it and at first I was thinking, oh yeah, that’s great, good for his grammar and vocab! Then Scott pointed out that he had his own experience and that reading the book might change his feelings about it.
So we sat down and spoke to him about how if he didn’t feel right in any way that he could stop reading, and also that because he was so little when it all happened, we didn’t want him to feel like my memories were his memories.
He responded, “No, I think it’d be interesting to know your perspective.” I was just floored. We’ll see how he goes!
10:: Wow, so where is the best place to grab a copy?
It’s available as a paperback from Amazon and also on Kindle, the Bookshop Bowral is stocking the paperback as well as Berkelouw Book Barn at Bendooley Estate and bookshops globally can order it. It’s also available as an Apple eBook on the iTunes store.
Thanks so much, Katie!
Enjoy!
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