BUTTERFLIES OR TIGERS: A MEMOIR

About the Book

Like the author herself, these improbable stories defy classification. Culled from ninety-one years of a rich and varied life, they begin with a vivid childhood memory of a terrifying hurricane at sea during her family’s journey from Colombia to a new life in the U.S. What follows is a series of disparate tales that include • Learning to cope with a free fall from suburban comfort in New Jersey to Great Depression rural poverty in alligator-infested central Florida; • Having a mystical encounter in a sacred forest in Assisi, Italy; • Being exposed to the subtleties of Earl Gray’s tea, Viennese “shtroodel,” and “Bead a Meyer” furniture by a sophisticated Hungarian neighbor; • Causing a sudden mysterious drop in the birthrate in a Mexican fishing village; • Being rescued by a French taxi driver from taking a room in a Marseille port hotel popular with sailors and their ladies of the night; • Enduring a hilarious seniors-only white-water rafting trip on the Rogue River in Oregon; • Finding herself stark naked in a rehabilitation center shower with a rapt audience of two attendants and a TV repair man; Through these and other experiences and adventures spanning ninety-one years, Liza Tilson opens her heart, shares the good and the bad, the funny and sad, and shows what it means to embrace life and live it fully.

About the Author

Like the author herself, these improbable stories defy classification. Culled from ninety-one years of a rich and varied life, they begin with a vivid childhood memory of a terrifying hurricane at sea, during her family’s journey from Colombia to a new life in the U.S. What follows is a series of disparate tales that include: • Learning to cope with a free fall from suburban comfort in New Jersey to Great Depression rural poverty in alligator-infested central Florida. • Having a mystical encounter in a sacred forest in Assisi, Italy. • Being exposed to the subtleties of Earl Gray’s tea, Viennese “shtroodel,” and “Bead a Meyer” furniture by a sophisticated Hungarian neighbor. • Causing a sudden mysterious drop in the birthrate in a Mexican fi shing village. • Being rescued by a French taxi driver from taking a room in a Marseille port hotel popular with sailors and their ladies of the night. • Enduring a hilarious seniors-only white-water rafting trip on the Rogue River in Oregon. • Finding herself stark naked in a rehabilitation center shower with a rapt audience of two attendants and a TV repair man. Through these and other experiences and adventures spanning ninety-one years, Liza Tilson opens her heart, shares the good and the bad, the funny and sad, and shows what it means to embrace life and live it fully.