“A beautiful, evocative, and deeply personal account of love, loss, and forgiveness. By interweaving her family’s fascinating history with her own memories and experiences, M. Betsy Smith takes us along her fantastical journey of searching for answers, creating connections, and—ultimately—finding peace.”
—Nynke Dorhout, Librarian, The Mount, Edith Wharton Cultural Center
“A rare gift was bestowed on M. Betsy Smith during the time of Covid. As everything shut down, she had the opportunity to write in the private rooms of Edith Wharton’s The Mount. She set out to write fiction, while looking out the windows for a loon on the pond—a sign from her mother in heaven. Instead, she found her mother in her writing notebooks, as well as surprising ancestral connections to The Mount, and ghosts so real, you’ll have to decide what is fiction and what is not.”
—D. M. Gordon, author of Loosestrife for Porcupines
M. Betsy Smith was born and raised in Berkshire County. After retiring from her career in insurance in 2016, she started writing. It was a long-held dream she fully embraced. Her creative nonfiction essays and poetry share emotional and often universal stories. Her work has been published by Refinery29, The Write Launch, Entropy, Brevity, Chaleur Magazine, and the WriteAngles Journal.
The Covid pandemic presented Betsy with a unique opportunity to write in Edith Wharton’s home, The Mount, in Lenox, Massachusetts. The house was closed to the public, so she had endless opportunities to explore, do something different, and create a story. Her inspiration was her great-grandmother’s wedding ring. The journey to discover family history, learn about Wharton and the house, and introduce ghosts resulted in a multifaceted story.
