Gretel Patch’s Memoir

HOME ANYWHERE: A MOTHER’S PILGRIMAGE TO CULTIVATE ROOTS ACROSS BORDERS is a book-length memoir, a personal narrative about my journey over the past two decades as a diplomat’s wife as I have mothered my four children across continents and cultures and created stability through faith and community to thrive literally anywhere.

I invite faith-filled parents, expatriates, and adventurers near and far to shake up any archaic notions of home and reconnect with our global human family. Through demonstrated themes of resilience, connection, and transformation, HOME ANYWHERE captures the heart of placemaking and examines the stories we pass down.

As I noted in a recent Substack post:

“When I started writing my memoir just before COVID brought the world to a halt, I intended to share my journey of raising children in various countries. Inspired to capture stories that might be lost if I didn’t tell them, I wanted my children to know not only their stories but mine…As I wrote and researched, spaced and returned, took classes and received feedback from professionals, a clear framework emerged. Constructing its deep-rooted footings, reinforcing joists, and stabilizing trusses worked up a sweat. From the initial blueprints and scaffolding, the protective sheathing covering my idea began to take shape. I just wasn’t sure if it could bear the weight of a message that was never meant to remain within those four walls.”

My manuscript is about nearly complete and I am querying agents and editors.

HOME ANYWHERE: A MOTHER’S PILGRIMAGE TO CULTIVATE ROOTS ACROSS BORDERS helps readers ensure they will never be lost no matter where they land and to bridge gaps in a divided world. I invite readers to examine through our time together the home that’s inside of them, created by them and through them and for them, and not only find home–but to become it.