Yvonne Watterson
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Yvonne Watterson

considering the lilies ©

More About Yvonne

More About Yvonne

More about Yvonne

Yvonne Watterson is a Northern Irish-born writer now living in Mexico. Her work has appeared in The Irish Times, Irish Central, Reading Ireland, and elsewhere. Yvonne's essays begin in all sorts of places - a song, a story, a ballpark, a polling place, a graveyard - but they return to the same complicated business of belonging to more than one place - what makes a place, a person, or a moment feel like home.

About Yvonne

From there to here . . . Yvonne Watterson is a Northern Irish-born writer and educator, now based near Guadalajara, Mexico. Her career in public education spans nearly 30 years, during which she led school reform initiatives featured in national outlets including The New York Times and Education Week. Her work as a high school principal in Arizona focused on equity, inclusion, and student advocacy, earning both local and national attention. Her writing life began in 2011, after an invasive breast cancer diagnosis sent her searching for answers online. What began as survival grew into a practice of storytelling, with her work appearing in The Irish Times, Irish Central, Reading Ireland, and other outlets. Her essays and reflections explore themes ranging from The Troubles in Northern Ireland and the poetry of Seamus Heaney to personal experiences of illness, loss, and resilience after being widowed in 2013. She compiled and edited Documented Dreams, a bilingual collection of letters documenting her advocacy with young immigrant students, and she contributed to Bravados: An Anthology, featuring 21 personal narratives by expats living in the Lake Chapala region. In 2025, she collaborated with Stephen Travers on The Bass Player – Surviving the Miami Showband Massacre. Yvonne’s social justice advocacy has earned her numerous honors, including the City of Phoenix Martin Luther King “Living the Dream” Award and the YWCA Tribute to Women Social Justice Leader Award. She is also a musician, performing with her partner, Scott Henrich, in The Old Souls Band, an Americana ensemble based in Ajijic, Mexico.

  • American Dream,  Arizona,  Belfast,  Borders,  Bullying,  Gay Marriage,  Governor Jan Brewer,  Human Rights,  Immigration,  Marriage,  Politics,  Racial Profiing,  SB1062,  SB1070,  Soundtracks of our Lives,  The Troubles

    do the right thing this time, Governor Brewer.

    February 21, 2014 / 14 Comments

    A version of this article also appears at IrishCentral.com: Arizona Governor Could Show us That Lessons of History do not Apply to her Again.  The last time I hoped Arizona Governor Jan Brewer would do the right thing was in the summer of 2010. I was sitting in my Principal’s office, only half-enjoying a visit from a former student – each of us…

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  • Being a Widow,  Facebook,  Friendship,  Loss,  Love,  Memoir,  Milestones,  Rites of passage,  Rituals,  Social Media,  Themes of childhood,  Valentines Day,  widowed

    for valentine’s day ~ ronald reagan’s love medicine

    February 14, 2014 / 12 Comments

    Many relationships in my life I conduct almost entirely by telephone, including those with the people dearest to me. With too much ocean or freeway stretching between our houses, it is easier to carry on conversations from the comfort of our own homes. Always, there is something to talk about even when there is nothing to talk about. Before Skype,…

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  • Aging,  Being a Widow,  Being young,  Birthdays,  Death and dying,  Grieving,  Loss,  Marriage,  Memoir,  Milestones,  Mourning,  Poetry,  Rites of passage,  W.H. Auden,  Walt Whitman,  widowed

    no sense of direction . . .

    February 5, 2014 / 27 Comments

    One of the first gifts my husband ever gave me was a silver pocket compass. Having noted very early in our relationship my stellar capacity for getting lost – and notwithstanding the fact that I was then a novice driving on the American side of the road – my man intervened as he knew best. I hadn’t the heart to…

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    Editor
  • Awesome Women,  Breast Cancer Advocacy,  Breast Cancer Awareness,  Cancer Language,  Culture of breast cancer,  Diagnosis,  Early Detection,  Facebook,  Family,  Health,  Language of Cancer,  Mammograms,  Memoir,  Mother Daughter Relationship,  Pink Ribbon Culture,  Pink Ribbons,  Social Media,  Twitter,  Wilfred Owen,  World Cancer Day,  Writing

    world cancer day: a reprise

    February 4, 2014 / 19 Comments

    My breast cancer is not just about me as I discovered when my then fourteen year old daughter decided to break her silence about it. In her own way, on her Facebook wall, and on World Cancer Day 2012. Thus, on this day designated for speaking up and out, in 2014 focusing on Target 5 of the World Cancer Declaration which…

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Copyright © & Usage 2026 Yvonne Watterson Writing - All rights reserved. All content published on this blog—including articles, images, and media—is the property of Yvonne Watterson , unless otherwise noted. Unauthorized use or duplication of this material without express written permission is strictly prohibited. You may share brief excerpts and links to blog posts for non-commercial purposes, provided that full and clear credit is given to Yvonne Watterson with a direct link to the original content. This blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License . Disclaimer The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of any organizations or affiliates. Some posts may include affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission—at no additional cost to you—if you choose to make a purchase through those links. These help support the blog and its content.
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