Muddy Thursday: A Memoir

by Darla Garvey

Muddy Thursday is the true story of a young boy growing up in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota in the 1990s. Ray Garvey lives as if he doesn’t have cystic fibrosis (CF), a life-threatening genetic disease. At school, Ray is the boy every kid wants to sit by because he is entertaining – the class clown. At home, Ray is the ring-leader of the neighborhood and a role model to his younger sister Martha, who also has cystic fibrosis.

Ray’s mother is an elementary school teacher, his father a K9 police officer. Both parents have a curious past and their early experiences – the good ones and the bad ones –play a role in how they raise two children living with cystic fibrosis. Yet nothing could prepare them for the sudden, unexplained death of their twelve-year-old son.

Following Ray’s death, his little sister is left to forge ahead without her only sibling and best friend. Martha bravely faces every milestone and CF complication without her sidekick. Ray’s father tries to cope with the loss of his son by immersing himself into his work, but his mother leaves her teaching position and retreats inside her home – inside her head – by circumstance and choice. Not until her own mortality comes into question, after a breast cancer diagnosis, does she ask herself this. “Who am I to squander the life I was given, no matter its challenges?”

This is a tale about the kind of tragedy that can destroy a family, but ultimately Muddy Thursday is a beautiful, heartwarming story that will inspire readers to embrace life wholeheartedly, even in the face of adversity.

321 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2021

About the author

Darla Garvey is a former elementary school teacher turned author. Her memoir, MUDDY THURSDAY, is her first book.

Garvey's writing skills were honed by instructors at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Further encouragement and guidance came from fellow St. Paul East Sider and NY Times bestselling author, Steve Thayer, as well as editorial feedback from Minnesota Book Award-winning author, Julie Kramer.

"Darla's strategic pacing weaves humor and heartbreak while dropping prescient hints that lend intensity to the storytelling in this remarkably honest narrative of a mother's joy and grief. Muddy Thursday contains lessons for anyone struggling to make sense out of tragedy. While this is Garvey's life story, have no doubt, her son steals the show. It is clear she will never forget him, but sharing her unflinching memories ensures readers never will either. This story will stay with me for a long time." ~JULIE KRAMER, Minnesota Book Award-winning author of Stalking Susan.


"I read a rough draft of Muddy Thursday several years ago and it has stayed with me ever since. A strong book by a strong woman. In fact, if the manuscript Darla Garvey handed me had been a work of fiction, I'd have told her she was throwing too much at the main character ... the grieving mother of a dead son, the loving mother of a determined daughter, a school teacher, a cancer survivor, and a cop's wife. The fact that her inspiring true stories take place in many of the neighborhoods I ran as a child make the book even more poignant." ~STEVE THAYER, NY Times bestselling author of The Wheat Field

Reviews

[Amy Lyke · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is heart wrenching. The writing was pretty good. There are some interesting insights into living with cystic fibrosis which I found compelling.