By Steve Steiner

Managing editor

ssteiner@elkintribune.com

“When you lose someone you love, you lose a little piece of yourself...”*

Hunter Darden, who was raised in Elkin, is no stranger to loss; in a brief biography (from www.oaktara.com/Hunter_D) a 3-year-old brother passed away from a congenital heart problem; her physician father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s while in his 50s; her brother, Robert, died at age 44 from a rare form of Rheumatoid Arthritis; and while preparing for her brother’s inevitable death, her sister, Fran, died suddenly from Toxic Shock Syndrome, leaving three young children behind.

“During that terrible time, I learned that even a cry of pain or anguish is a form of prayer,” says Hunter, “and that the word heal, in Greek, means ‘to make whole.’”

Now, with the re-issuance of “Tapestry,” she revisits that time in her life when she questioned not only prayer, but God. Especially with her sister’s sudden, unexpected passing in 2001.

“I just had a difficult time reconciling her death,” Darden said. “I was trying to understand the purpose of prayer.”

It led to her estrangement from God — and in a way, a separation from herself.

“I started thinking of I, myself, with a little “i” and God with a little “g,” she said.

In that course of time, Darden ceased attending church; perhaps, in part, because she wanted little, if anything, to do with church. It was a reflection of what she was going through with the rest of her life. She was pulling in, retreating from the world.

Looking back, now, Darden believes that God had a hand in what followed next.

“There was this one Sunday morning I just felt the desire to go to church,” she said. “I went to a church with a new minister, whose sermon was on prayer.”

As far as Darden was concerned, this was not a coincidence. More so, the sermon sparked a return for her, but not one she initiated.

“That Monday following the service, I received a call for an interview from a TV station,” she said. “That was in 2002.”

Darden joked that following the interview, she has been “running my mouth ever since.”

She has also been busy writing. Currently, she is working on a book about children, worrying.

“Its title is, ‘I Only Eat Trout,’” Darden said.

The title came about because of her youngest son (who is now in college). He refused to eat at any of his friends’ homes. According to Darden, one day, out of frustration, the mother of one of his friends asked why. It was that response that has now become the title of her latest work in progress.

That book, Darden added, will also have an added feature.

“There will be a worry envelope,” she said.

That envelope will be at the back of the book. Children reading it will have the opportunity to write their concerns and place them in the envelope. Darden was quick to add, this was not to be an envelope to be mailed; just a place for children to place their concerns.

Also in the future works is a love novel that draws its inspiration from her maternal grandmother, now deceased. Its title will be “Sand Castles in the Air.” Like “I Only Eat Trout,” that title draws upon an actual statement.

“My grandmother dated five different men, none of them my grandfather,” Darden said.

After her grandmother passed away, Darden came across a bundle of letters her grandmother had kept all those years. In it, one of her suitors wrote, “Dating you is like sand castles in the air;” hence the title.

Even many years later, her grandmother still had a sway over her former courters. One such proof was a correspondence following the death of a brother of her grandmother.

“In 1963, an old swain wrote a sympathy card,” said Darden. “But I could read between the lines.

Each chapter in that book will be based on a line or two of the letters Darden came upon.

About “Tapestry”

Not too long ago, she was approached by Oaktara, a Christian-based publishing company that wanted to re-issue “Tapestry,” a book no longer in print. In order to make this possible, Darden relinquished all marketing and distribution rights. It is a move she does not regret.

“It’s just a good company with good people,” she said.

The publishing company publishes only inspirational fiction by both new and established authors, according to its web site (www.oaktara.com)

“Tapestry,” Darden said, is about a woman named Olivia who has suffered a series of losses.”

As a consequence, Olivia has retreated from love and from life. Her life has become filled with questions and some regrets, and the longings to return to “times before.”

Despite her fears, because, as Darden explains, loving means risks — especially the risk of losing someone else — Olivia is drawn to a man named Jack, a landscape architect. However (as stated on the earlier mentioned web site), much has to happen in Olivia’s own heart first.

Although this is a re-publishing of the book, this by a different publishing company, there are new additions. One of those is the inclusion of letters from people who read the book the first time it was issued. Another addition is a personal note from Hunter Darden herself.

Darden added that if anyone would like to receive a personalized copy to contact her at: hunt421@bellsouth.net

(* Editor’s note: The opening passage is from the www.oaktara.com/Hunter_D web site)