The family of Tallu Quinn, Parnassus Books, the Nashville Food Project, and Harpeth Hall are pleased to present a celebration of Tallu Schuyler Quinn's What We Wish Were True. Join Ann Patchett, Bonnie Smith Whitehouse, Alice Randall, Margaret Renkl, Joe Croker, and Robbie Quinn for a special event featuring readings from the book and reflections on the life of Tallu Schuyler Quinn.
This is a free event which will take place at Harpeth Hall's Frances Bond Davis Theater on Tuesday, April 19th at 6:30pm Central Time. Because space will be limited, registration is required to attend this event. Masks are strongly encouraged at this event.
About the Book
"I am holding both my hope and my grief together in the same hands. It is a loose hold, looser than I am accustomed to. My love is so much bigger than me."
Nonprofit leader and minister Tallu Schuyler Quinn spent her adult life working to alleviate hunger, systemic inequality, and food waste, first as a volunteer throughout the United States and abroad, and then as the founder of the Nashville Food Project, where she supported the vibrant community work of local food justice in Middle Tennessee. That all changed just after her fortieth birthday, when she was diagnosed with stage IV glioblastoma, an aggressive form of terminal brain cancer.
In What We Wish Were True, Quinn achingly grapples with the possibility of leaving behind the husband and children she adores, and what it means to live with a terminal diagnosis and still find meaning. "I think about how my purpose may be the same in death as it continues to be in life--surrendering to the hope that our weaknesses can be made strong, that what is broken can be made whole," she writes.
Through gorgeous prose, Quinn masterfully weaves together the themes of life and death by integrating spiritually nourishing stories about family, identity, vocational call, beloved community, God's wide welcome, and living with brain cancer. Taken together, these stunning essays are a piercing reminder to cherish each moment, whether heartbreaking or hilarious, and cast loose other concerns.
As a mother, a kindred spirit, and a dear friend, Tallu Schuyler Quinn looks into our eyes with well-earned tears in her own and tells us the bittersweet truth: We are all searching for what has already found us--present and boundless love. This love will deliver us and never let us go.