I never imagined writing this book.
I have a good imagination, and I’ve always been an optimist, sometimes foolishly so. But I could never have foreseen the events that would inspire this story.
Sometimes real life eclipses the imagination. Sometimes magic happens.
You try and try and try. You get frustrated. You get tuckered out. What choice do you have but to accept reality, even if you don’t like it?
And then, when you least expect it, life says, Actually, how about THIS? It twitches its nose, and poof, offers you something wildly unexpected, something beautiful. And all you can do is stand there with your mouth hanging open in awe.
I spent years worrying about my brother, who lived on the streets for more than a decade. Wondering if he was safe. Looking for him. Supporting him in all the ways I could. Feeling sad, feeling mad, feeling scared. Waiting for a call telling me that something bad had happened. Imagining all the worst scenarios.
It got to the point where I’d sort of given up trying to fix it. I wanted it fixed, but I just didn’t know how. So I had to make peace with how things were. I’d accepted there was nothing more I could do.
Then, after I’d let go, something changed. My brother changed. He reached out. And together, we figured out a better way forward for him, and for our family. He came to live with me and my son. That was almost three years ago.
My first picture book, The One with the Scraggly Beard, is, at its core, a story about love. It’s about making peace with things that are difficult to understand, and, importantly, seeing the humanity in everyone. We were all little kids, once, innocents, our whole lives still ahead of us. I try to see that when I meet people from all walks of life.
More Us is a story about hope. About possibility. About patience, and trying, and surprise.
There are no guarantees in life. Things often don’t go according to plan. Bad things happen. Sad things happen. Sometimes it feels safer not to dream.
But you know what? You might be wrong. The future hasn’t happened yet. And guess what? It might be really good. It might even be GREAT.
And that’s something I wanted to convey in More Us. That you don’t know where the road will go. No matter how dark it is, how little you can see, how hopeless you might feel, just keep moving on the road.
I don’t worry about my brother anymore.
–Elizabeth Withey
Elizabeth Withey is a Canadian author, journalist and visual artist. Her first book, The One with the Scraggly Beard, is a story about homelessness inspired by family experiences. She is also the author of the picture book Ins and Outs and More Us. Elizabeth lives in Calgary with her son, her brother, a calico cat and a very silly whippet.