BATH

Longtime Bath resident Meadow Rue Merrill is nearing the release of her memoir, “Redeeming Ruth,” which hits bookstores on Monday. Merrill began her writing career at The Times Record in 1994, and has since written for the Boston Globe, New York Times and Downeast Magazine. But Merrill said that her journey of writing about Ruth — a Ugandan child with cerebral palsy who Merrill and her husband, Dana, adopted in 2007 — has brought her writing and her musings on life to new heights.

The Times Record recently sat down with Merrill to talk about her book, her background as a reporter and her will to help others.

The Times Record: You’ve been writing for a long time. Tell us about how you got your start.

Meadow Rue Merrill: I started at The Times Record. I loved working there. When I started there I was right out of college. It was my first job, and it was great.

I remember staying up all night before my first town meeting. I think it was in Woolwich. I didn’t even know what a town meeting was, but I wasn’t about to tell the managing editor that.

So I showed up and took notes, and it took me all night to write that story. Plus, we didn’t have the internet. This was back in the prehistoric days. We had a file cabinet with manila folders, and the lady at the front desk would cut out articles every day and put them in filing cabinets, and when you wanted a backstory you pulled out the file.

We were just learning all the time, and it was all new to me, and I loved it. I worked there for three years, and then my husband and I started having kids, and I began to work from home.

TR: What other newspapers did you work for?

MRM: I worked for the New York Times and the Boston Globe. There was this fantastic features writer who worked for The Times Record named Robert George. He had started freelancing for the Globe while he was a Times Record reporter. Then he got married and moved to Florida and he passed the job on to me.

Again, I had the same kind of experience: none. I remember working with the editor there, and he said, “You need to write a lede sentence,” and I said, “What’s a lede?” It’s just little funny things like that, but I was just so grateful that they were willing to work with me. They just needed people and I was there, and so I corresponded with them for eight years. It was on the job training between The Times Record and the Globe.

For the New York Times I just did family essays, personal experience kind of stuff. I am not a news analyst. I found writing about my family, homes and gardens, that’s what I like to do. I write that type of thing for Downeast Magazine too.

TR: When did you decide you wanted to write a memoir?

MRM: I absolutely never planned to write a memoir, it was super organic. I was meeting with a local group of writers at Patten Free Library, and every other week I was bringing in a chapter of a children’s story I was working on.

At the same time we had this little girl named Ruth with cerebral palsy who had come in from a Uganda orphanage, and we were thinking about adopting her. And one of the first weeks she spent in our home I brought her to one of the writer’s meetings, and I laid her on the floor and that was it. They didn’t want to hear my children’s stories any more. They wanted to hear about Ruth. They said, “You need to write a memoir.”

I had also written a series for The Times Record during our adoption, and people were stopping me at the grocery store saying, “How’s Ruth,” or “How’s your adoption going?” People really felt connected to her story.

Those articles were from when she was 1 or 2 years old, and I began writing the memoir when she was 3 as this really happy ever-after adoption story. I would pull up the manuscript on my computer and work on it every once and awhile, and then close the file. And it wasn’t until we lost Ruth at the age of 8 that I just felt I wanted to write the rest of her story, and where it took us we never could have expected.

TR: How did Ruth’s life help shape you and your husband’s lives?

MRM: I really feel like Ruth was here for the time she was meant to be here. If we had said no to adopting her, we’re the ones who would have missed out just as much as she did. She certainly enriched our lives as much if not more than we enriched hers. It’s kind of one of those scary things to me because I really came close to saying no way, I’m not ready to adopt. It’s just scary the different paths we take in life. And I have no idea what happens next.

I really hope this book is an inspiration to people on how they can be more welcoming to others. I think if people are interested in adoption they’ll be interested in the book. Also if they raised a child with additional needs. Even just for people wondering, “Why am I here?” “Why does it matter?” and “Can I make a difference?”

I think this book will point them in the right direction. We really can make a difference. I think the key is becoming aware, but it’s also choosing to make personal sacrifices so you have more available whether it’s time or money to help other people.

MEADOW RUE MERRILL will present a reading of “Redeeming Ruth” on May 3 at Patten Free Library in Bath from 5-7:30 p.m.

bgoodridge@timesrecord.com