Former Member Publishes Memoir on Forgiveness

In a newly-released memoir about forgiving her Greatest Generation father through spirituality and acceptance, author Emily Thayer Guziak writes of her experience at the First Congregational Church in Battle Creek, from 1967-77, in reaching that level of forgiveness.

Guziak credits the work of the late Rev. Dr. James Lichliter, and the Rev. Dr. Ralph S. Datema, pastors at the First Congregational Church during her high school years, for influencing her spirituality.

In Just Ask:  A Memoir of Forgiveness, Guziak  explores how a person can learn to truly love oneself if he or she doesn’t experience unconditional love as a child. From the time she was a toddler, Guziak believed her father’s love for her is based on performance, in not arguing with her siblings, achieving at Saturday morning swim lessons, and keeping dirty fingers away from his car windows.

As the tone is set for a tightly-run household in which performance earns acceptance, Guziak finds that with each passing year the struggle to become her true, unique self is more challenging. In a defining moment, Emily must accept that she can “never be the same again,” and, in literally a moment’s time, begin to off-load years’ of self doubt, and accept the unconditional love of her father that has always been present.

Just Ask: A Memoir of Forgiveness is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578327228 or at emilyguziak.com

Guziak’s work has been published in US News & World Report, Burlington (VT) Free Press, University of Vermont Quarterly, LaPorte (IN) Herald-Argus, Kenosha (WI) News, Wilmette (IL)  Life, and Traverse (MI) Northern Michigan’s Magazine (July 2020).