Carol Feller Brady
Through the Storm Towards the Sun is a collector’s item. The author, Carol Feller Brady, was born in Sitka, Alaska during the Great Depression. While growing up, the Japonski Island Naval Air Station house Marine, Army, and Navy troops before WW II began. Sheldon Jackson School was a Presbyterian boarding school and Carol grew up in the adjacent Presbyterian cottages. Her playground was the Totem Park where the 1804 Battle of Sitka took place. Mrs. Brady’s parents were alumni of the Sheldon Jackson School. Mrs. Brady attended a government boarding school, the Wrangell Institute, and graduated in the last Senior class over 50 years ago.
Born into a family with an historical background, the author was born at home up at the Presbyterian Cottages, surrounded by Sheldon Jackson School, the Totem Park, and the Indian River. She had a beautiful early childhood! This is what came to mind when she decided to document her life-she needed to bring her family back so her children would know if them. She did not realize that it would require opening old wounds. She became frightened and quit writing for a while. It was painful.
She did not realize then that it would be the start of healing for her. The request to write the autobiography brought out some painful memories that had been coming back to haunt her. She cried while she wrote, remembering that she had to bear the brunt of the anger that people vented on her while very drunk.
The little ones felt it too! She realized that her writing had become very graphic. The deep hurts were being released. She had buried them for so long it hurt so bad! She feels now that she had been bitter, and tried to hide that, too.
She had done some heavy drinking. She could have ended up in prison. The alcohol did not heal the hurts, it just kept them there, festering, and dangerous! It was healthy for her to talk to other people for most of her life. Because she wondered why the last of her family had hated her so much when she really needed them! Their babies loved her so much. As little as they were, they tried to stick up for her. Aunt Dadah still loves you. She will see you soon, God willing.
Thank God for my great early childhood. I believe that this is where good healthy breeding begins. And even before birth! I feel that I should have titled my book ‘ALCOHOL’, or ‘ALCOHOLISM’; I HAVE BEEN THERE!
The End of Childhood
And "Little Alice"
Where did that little girl go? Everyone used to call her "Little Alice". That was her baby name - she was one of the silly little girls who used to tap dance for the girl students up at Sheldon Jackson in the girls social hall. She was no different from the other girls because of missing baby teeth. She looked like a little Jack-O-Lantern when she grinned, with a gob of hair growing straight up as a result of cutting out a wad of gum that had stuck in her hair while she slept. Even though she was funny, she was cute too.
In the fall of the year when she and her family went out to Tynee Cannery in Peril Straits where her mother and sister worked, and her brothers fished all week, she and her bedridden dad were left at home to watch over each other, and when she went out to play she had strict orders to go home and check with him often, which she usually did. And when she was just learning to read she would sit beside his bed and read him the funny papers. Even though she was very little, she learned to build a wood fire in the old wood stove (with instructions from her dad) so her mom would be able to fix something hot to eat when she got home from work. She and her dad sure made a good team.
