Tara Kelly
The day before Robert died was an otherwise perfect June day in Connecticut: warm but not hot, with a bit of a breeze, flawless blue sky, puffy white clouds—the sort of weather a sailor loves, and Robert was a sailor.
So begins Kelly’s moving memoir of her life with Robert Willis, her husband, father of their children, restauranteur, sailor, bon vivant, and alcoholic. From an enchanted start in Manhattan to a townhouse in Brooklyn, from an island in Maine and back to rural Connecticut, in fast cars and sleek boats, Tara and Robert seemed to live a charmed life. But beneath the glittering exterior was the struggle of money, alcohol, and ultimately self-control and hard-won sobriety. When this couple seems to have reached an impasse, separation brings renewed love, and then tragedy brings new challenges.
Kelly’s memoir is a clear-eyed excavation of the lives lived together and apart by two charismatic modern Americans, a story told in love and compassion for herself and others, a story readers will savor and remember.
Kelly has been a columnist and features writer for The Lakeville Journal, a volunteer EMT, a writer/producer in the Marketing Department of Lifetime Television, an “Under-Five” extra on All My Children, a front of house manager/muse/substitute bottlewasher for two restaurants, and a reluctant first mate on the coast of Maine, all while raising two children and riding her horse as often as possible. She graduated from the Bennington College MFA Writing program in 2014. She is a contributing writer to Millbrook Magazine. No Last Words is her first book.
