From Seed to Tree to Fruit

In From Seed to Tree to Fruit: A Daughter's Memoir of Grief and Healing, Rebecca Williams Mlynarczyk recalls her childhood as a transplanted Northerner growing up in the segregated South of the 1950s. At the center of the book is her father, Dr. Bert C. Williams, a beloved professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alabama. In 1954, he was hospitalized after suffering a psychotic break at a university committee meeting. Three months later, he died at Bryce Hospital, the state mental institution. In a quest to come to terms with the trauma of her father's unexpected illness and sudden death, the author recalls childhood memories and searches through family scrapbooks and letters. Readers who revisit the past alongside her will see what can be gained when we look back at our loved ones in all their complexity. If we are fortunate, we experience healing as we learn to love them in new and unexpected ways.