Beth Ann Mathews
My personal essay, “Willy: One in Ten,” published in Hippocampus Magazine, was inspired by a profound interaction I had in high school with a monkey during my summer job at a zoo. In the years that followed, I didn’t share what had happened with anyone. Not even my mother. Yet, the experience caring for Willy stayed with me.
Writing this story decades later helped me appreciate the important role the summer job at the zoo played in my zig-zag career path, and how ultimately the experience with Willy inspired me to become a wildlife biologist.
Here’s how the story begins:
“This here’s a woolly monkey,” Gary said, “from South America. When you’re hosin’ down, keep your hands outside the bars. He’s a bit off. Used to be more friendly. Name’s Willy.”
The monkey glared at me, quivering lips stretched, teeth bared. My heart knocked against my chest.” . . .
To read the rest of “Willy: One in Ten,” click the link to Hippocampus Magazine.
Willy: One in Ten by Beth Ann Mathews
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In Beth’s award-winning book, Deep Waters: A Memoir of Loss, Alaska Adventure, and Love Rekindled her fulfilling life as a marine mammal biologist and a mother in Alaska is upended when her healthy husband is slammed by a rare type of stroke. His radical approach to recovery clashes with Beth’s instinct to keep him safe at home and sets them on a collision course as he insists on ambitious sailing expeditions with Beth and their young son in Alaska’s magnificent, yet unforgiving, waters. Beth is an engaging speaker who loves interacting with book clubs.
