Being prepared for what life brings

CHENEY — In writing a book about preparation for war, former Cheney High School English teacher Darrelyn McDermott drew on her experiences.

In selecting a title summing up those preparations, she drew on a more celebrated writer — William Shakespeare.

With the latter, specifically Act 5, Scene 2 of his classic “Hamlet.” In it, Hamlet’s friend Horatio is attempting to persuade the Danish prince from engaging in a duel, fearing he will be killed, but Hamlet knows he is destined to fight somehow at some time.

“If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all,” Hamlet says.

In “The Readiness is All,” published posthumously in 2018, McDermott relates her experiences through a fictional character to tell readers they need to prepare for any eventuality, no matter when we expect it might happen.

“For all of us, we need to prepare,” her daughter Shelly Tracy said.

McDermott spent 10 years on the book, eventually typing out the contents with one finger of each hand, Tracy said, as rheumatoid arthritis made writing difficult. She finished the work just a few months before her passing in 2018 — and now members of the Darrelyn McDermott Creative Writing Memorial Scholarship fund are hoping to use portions of the sale of the book to fund the $500 CHS senior scholarship.

In “The Readiness is All,” high school teacher Lizzy Alexander leaves the family ranch seeking to escape a past that includes the death of her brother. She eventually finds “meaning” in the small, Eastern Washington college town of Rutherford.

“It’s a fictional town, but really, it’s Cheney,” Tracy said.

But Alexander comes to Rutherford during the turmoil and social upheaval surrounding the Vietnam War, and she eventually resolves to protect her students from the chaos while searching for meaning in her life and restoring lost hope. To achieve this goal, she concocts an elaborate plan that is “replete with unforeseen controversy, social repercussions and personal transformation.”

“It surprised me, knowing her so well,” Karlyn Urdahl, a former CHS teacher and colleague of McDermott’s said. “I was very surprised at the ending.”

Tracy said her mom borrowed a lot from her own experiences to create the character of Alexander. She lost an uncle to fighting during World War II, and witnessed the social conflicts created by the draft and protests during Vietnam as the wife of a professor at Eastern Washington State College and eventually EWU, watching as EWU and Cheney High students found themselves having to make decision of whether to join up, or oppose the fighting.

McDermott took classes part-time at EWU while raising Tracy and her siblings, graduating in 1979. She started at CHS that fall teaching drama, moving into the English instruction position a year later — a spot she stayed in until retiring in 2013.

“She was a great lady and she was always interested in civil rights for everyone,” Tracy said. “As the fictional teacher (Alexander) is teaching in this book, I can hear my mom teaching in her classroom.”

In writing the book, McDermott drew on her colleagues at CHS, often circulating drafts and taking in feedback. Tracy said that while she was living in hospice care McDermott would contribute often to the high school’s library fund, and after she passed, many of her friends and fellow teachers banded together to form her Creative Writing Memorial Scholarship fund.

Urdahl said scholarship applicants need to submit a short biography of themselves, a statement of educational intent and a creative writing sample such as a poem or short story through their Language Arts classes. The entries are judged, with the winner having the fund paid directly to their school of choice — which can range from a four-year university to a two-year college or technical/vocational school.

Copies of “The Readiness is All” are available for $10 by calling Tracy at 509-499-7078, Urdahl at 406-570-6068 or Lilia Ko at 509-844-7574.

– John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].