Boxes

Collections. Stamps, spoons, seashells, scrapbooks - they're a familiar part of a human life, a gathering together of objects, each imbued with more meaning than it would have on its own. For Donnan Runkel, the varied containers crowded on top of her dresser became not just a collection of boxes to hold her jewelry but a link to people in her life who made her who she is. Hers is a collection of influences and experiences, changes and challenges, held within containers as unique as the individuals who gave them to her. A tin box sits beside sterling silver filigree, cut crystal next to painted paper, Russian enamel next to Haitian jungle wood. Each one of these boxes contains a rich story of transformation that woven together, become a unique memoir. In Lifting the Lid on an American Life we hear vivid, often hilarious, recollections of a life that began in awkward self-doubt and blossomed into the discovery of true love and the triumphs of motherhood and career. Through this journey we learn that the pain of life folds into the many-faceted depths of becoming.

Donnan (Deedie) Runkel draws upon a full-storied life that began in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she grew up, and led to Washington, D.C. where she helped launch the antinuclear organization Peace Links, before joining Peace Corps headquarters staff as Director of Public Affairs. She served as director of Peace Corps/Belize, and later as an international consultant. She is currently president of the Rotary Club of Ashland. She and her husband David Runkel have three grown children and one grandchild (so far). They live in Ashland, Oregon, with Cappy, an aging chocolate lab, where they are the proprietors of Anne HathawayÊs Bed & Breakfast and Garden Suites.