Jackie Madden Haugh

Jackie Madden Haugh was born in 1952 in San Francisco, to the son of Irish Catholic immigrants and the daughter of silent movie actors. With the drama gene cursing strong through her siblings' veins, Jackie, smashed in the middle of the birth order, sought desperately to be noticed, and heard, in a home dominated by three, highly charged brothers. Like many young “good” girls in the 1950s who grew up wanting to be loved, Jackie felt lost and misunderstood. Being a people pleaser never seemed to get her the results she was looking for. Doing what’s right or expected doesn’t get you notice. Fortunately, her mother understood her pain all too well and presented her with a gift that would last a lifetime: a diary. Retreating to the one place where she’d find the understanding she so desperately sought, Jackie poured her thoughts daily into a little white journal hidden under lock and key in the privacy of her room. There she could speak her truth with no scrutiny, no ridicule. And, as the years unfolded, the thin blue lines of her journals became covered in black ink. Whenever feeling overshadowed by domineering voices, her journals grew to library-size proportions with a viewing audience of one. Sadly, just because she grew to be an adult, she never seemed to lose her fear of not being good enough. In 2009, after dealing with her husband’s incurable disease, the “I’m not happy” flu, Jackie look for solace in her divorce by writing her first memoir, “My Life in a Tutu,” published by WriteLife Publishers. In it, she takes an in-depth look, all the way to the core of her being, to find a soulful accounting of her place in this world. By being brutally honest with all the pieces to her life’s puzzle; not just the pain her husband caused, but the role she played in their marriage too, Jackie began to realize that constantly seeking personal perfection in an imperfect world was too heavy a cross to bear. It was time to let it go. This led to acquiring her column, "Haugh-about-that," in the local newspaper, "Los Altos Town Crier.” Each month Jackie's words touch thousands of readers with her musings on everyday life. Laced with profound emotion, as well as humor, Jackie leaves the reader with a poignant, inspiring message about one’s spiritual connection to the universe. As the single mother of four adult children, Jackie still resides in the family home in Los Altos, California where she performs her other duties as a residential realtor and fitness instructor. Today, she is currently working on two more projects, “The Promise I Kept,” the story of her 95-year-old father, blind and crippled, caring for his only daughter as he prepared himself for the end of his life. And, “Tipsy in a Tutu,” tales of the struggles found in Internet dating while in your 50s and 60s, supposedly way past ones’ prime. “My Life in a Tutu” can be found on Barnes and Noble.com and Amazon.com. “75 Beats to a Happy Heart,” a compilation of seventy-five stories from her column, may be purchased as an Ebook on WriteLifePublishors.com. And, all Jackie’s stories can be found on her website, www.jackiehaugh.com.