Mason-Dixon Memories: A Memoir About Love, Loss, and Redemption
Pangburn, Stacia Roberts
Synopsis "Mason-Dixon Memories: A Memoir About Love, Loss, and Redemption"
In essence this soulful story is about the continuous coming-of-age of a fragile family during the fifties, sixties, and beyond who spent years crossing the invisible Mason-Dixon Line in search of the truth, new beginnings, redemption, and the best way to live their lives. When two Southern brothers from New Roads, Louisiana married two Northern sisters from New England, the roots of these Mason-Dixon matches were planted in the fertile soil along the Mississippi. Although one of the only things that these couples had in common was the word 'new' in their places of birth, the author's young and impetuous parents decided to elope nine days after they were introduced by their older siblings! They built the foundation of their family in a little cypress shotgun cabin under a beautiful cathedral ceiling of an old oak alley on a piece of land called Live Oak. For thirteen years the couple tried to make their marriage last until it finally shattered on the day that the author's mother took her children and left their Daddy behind without any warning in order to return to her roots in Massachusetts. This traumatic day of separation marked the 'before and after' of the lives of a family who, each in their own way, had to grow up. The children spent years crossing the lines of their youth as they went back and forth from South to North and back to Dixie again where they spent summers with their father, their college years, and some of the best moments of their lives! This nostalgic look back at first loves, home, divorce, and friendships that last a lifetime speaks to the strength, unity, and continuity of the thread of a family which connected them even after it fractured. Through time and place, as they each came-of-age, the relationships from both sides of the invisible line which had once separated them brought them back to the land where their story had begun. Even through their pain, they eventually came to see the blessings that were before them all along in the moments that mattered. Every day people are impacted by abuse, alcoholism, divorce, murder, mental and physical illness, and suicide. This family was touched by all of these, but they were also enveloped by the love, kindness, empathy, support, encouragement, understanding, and compassion of those who surrounded them. These are more than mere inspirational words because there is a great deal of truth behind them. "Mason-Dixon Memories" is the soulful story about who they became while they were carried through the best and broken moments of their lives by the goodness of others.
