Author depicts triumph over tragedy in first published memoir

by Nicole Rosselot

Sagamore Hills resident and author Cynthia Harriett Carswell was on a training call at work when she looked down at her phone and saw the message: “Congratulations! Your book has been published!” on her screen.

“I was flabbergasted,” Carswell said. “I have no idea what the second half of the training call was about.”

The publication of her first book, “Dear Harriett,” is a crowning moment in Carswell’s lifelong journey of triumph over tragedy. The book is a combination memoir and fictional advice column published in May by Amazon’s Book Publishing Pros. It is available at amazon.com. Carswell is actively marketing her work with the goal of getting it into bookstores.

“For now, I am the word of mouth and it has been going quite well through my co-workers, family and friends,” she said.

Carswell credits her son Caleb John Wainwright with inspiring her to write her life story. “Caleb is the one who kept pushing [me] to write a book and he is such an amazing support,” Carswell said.

She also received encouragement from her managers and co-workers at Cigna Healthcare in Independence, where she has been an administrative assistant for over 33 years.

Soon after the book was published, manager Sally Schufreider surprised Carswell by combining a training session with a book-signing event. According to Carswell, Schufreider bought copies of “Dear Harriett” for all training session attendees and ordered a special cake.

“It literally was the cover of my book on top of a cake and my heart was fluttering,” said Carswell.

“Dear Harriett” spans the journey of Carswell’s life, documenting childhood trauma and abuse, the tragic death of her brother Tyronne in 1968, two failed marriages and the loss of her daughter Adrienne Wainwright in 1993. Carswell began writing her story in 2014, but that first book, “Room Without A Key,” took a dark turn.

“Even though I suffered all that trauma, I am an eternally happy person,” Carswell explained. “I didn’t want to give all that life and energy to the abusers so I stopped and put the book down.”

Almost ten years passed before Carswell revisited her book. This time, Carswell’s goal was to share her light with her readers, while chronicling the dark circumstances of her past. A lifelong fan of advice columnists Abigail Van Buren (a.k.a. Pauline Phillips) and Ann Landers (a.k.a Esther Lederer), Carswell decided to introduce the fictional advice column Dear Harriett to her reimagined memoir.

“I wanted it to be fun and so I began to improve upon what I started in 2014,” Carswell said.

She explained that the key word throughout the book is “ding,” and every time there is a “ding” someone is reaching out to Dear Harriett for help with a fictional problem. “In between ‘Dear Harriett’ columns, I talk about what I went through growing up,” Carswell said.

The book concludes with a positive message that encourages readers to rise above the trauma in their lives. Although many of her readers have encouraged her to write another book, Carswell said she feels she accomplished her goal.

“It is such a profound story for me to tell and once that story was told, once my life was sprinkled in the middle of the Dear Harriett requests for help, I just feel like I did what I set out to do,” she said. ∞

Photo: Cynthia Harriet Carswell poses with her first published book about her personal journey, “Dear Harriet.” Photo submitted.