Pamela Shaw was a reader long before she imagined being a writer. After the disappearance and murder of her husband when she was twenty-eight, she saved newspaper articles, scribbled down quotes from her children, and hoarded handwritten letters in the hope that one day the scattered pieces would be part of a whole – the book. When her two children left home for university, she gathered the pieces and began to write.
Home Before You took seven years to complete and covers a period of twenty-six years. It weaves together the lives of ordinary people who have faced what they feared most, with faith. The title comes from the last words her husband spoke to her before his disappearance: “I’ll take the keys. I’ll be home before you.” But it also speaks of an eternal home.
Pamela counts it a privilege to have been born and raised in Africa, a continent that understands the importance of storytelling, of passing on stories to the next generation - stories that shouldn’t be forgotten. Having been inspired by others’ courage, she hopes the telling of her own journey through grief to forgiveness and faith, will connect with those who have suffered loss.
Pamela grew up during the civil war in Rhodesia. Before the war ended, her family moved to South Africa and then to Aberdeen, Scotland. At eighteen, she returned to an independent Zimbabwe and has lived there ever since. An Arts graduate and former teacher, she now enjoys watching her granddaughters climb the big old fig tree that her children climbed, and plans to share her love of art, photography and writing with them too.
