Always focusing on the positive, former Innisfail resident Ellie Braun-Haley, more readily known by most as Ellie Braun, is excited.
Her story, Lessons from My Son, appears in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Answered Prayers, and hits store shelves last week.
“On the back cover of the new book they have featured six writers and I was one of them. When I saw that, I wanted to jump up and down or at least dance,” she said. “It’s just mind boggling to think that millions of people around the world will read about my prayer to God regarding my son.”
Braun-Haley, an animated storyteller throughout the interview, said she received her copy of the book October 9, one day before her birthday. An early birthday present, she said, a smile always on her face.
Though she looks at the world with determination to see the good in everything, her stories are full of emotion.
Braun-Haley started writing submissions for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series in 2002, when her short story on 9/11 caught the attention of publishers.
“It was an emotional story. It was my interpretation of what God was doing at that time.” She explained in the story she was driving down a highway in Alberta. A close family friend had passed away and when a few raindrops started to fall, she thought it was tears for his passing. Then a sudden rush of rain fell, forcing her to the side of the road where she witnessed the American flag set up nearby, flapping in the wind — it was tears for what happened in the U.S., she explained. She stayed on the side of the road until the sun came out and cleared it away.
“It was like coming out of a tunnel. The promise for better things to come,” she said of the experience.
Since then, Braun-Haley has written a number of submissions for the series, including one about her three year old granddaughter who provided her with insight about her relationship with God, and other about her daughter initiating an anti-bullying campaign at school.
Her most recent story for the series is more painful, as she revisits the death of her son, Jason Braun, who lived and attended school in Innifail for two years in the late 1980s.
In 1989, the young athlete, 17, who had since moved to Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School, was on his way to the Western Canadian Finals for track and field when he lost control of the vehicle and died in a single car accident.
Braun-Haley explores the pain she felt following his death and the need to reconnect with him through a dream, for a final goodbye hug.
“There’s sadness,” she said. “But hope at the end. … it have me greater hope — it helped me look towards tomorrow and to also live for today,” she explained.
Haley-Braun left Innisfail in 1987 and returned a few years later to live outside. Two years ago she moved to Red Deer with her husband.
She also writes for ezines and has published a few books including, A little Door, A Little Light, a collection of short stories about that explores life after death, Casey Caterpillar, a book of rhymes for children, and Muttering Moths, a sequel to the caterpillar story.
