Local Author Recovering From A Fall In Walnut Creek Foothills

Carol Lynn Pearson, a well-known author and Walnut Creek resident, was injured while hiking in the Walnut Creek hills on June 22.

“I was just out in the evening, not very far from my house, and I don’t know exactly what happened. My left foot was not where it ought to be and I catapulted,” said Pearson.

She said she was lucky because a man came along and helped her get back to her home.

She went straight to the Kaiser hospital in Walnut Creek, where an X-ray showed three fractures: her left hip, left elbow and right foot. She had surgery on her elbow and her hip.

Pearson said from a recovery facility, “I’m just trying to invoke all the cells of my body to do their good work and healing.”

She was born in 1939 and graduated from Brigham Young University in Utah with a master's degree in theatre.

Pearson taught for a year in Utah at Snow College, then taught part-time at Brigham Young University in the English department and wrote educational and religious screenplays for the campus motion picture studio.

Pearson's first book of poetry was published by her now deceased ex-husband, Gerald Pearson. It sold more than 150,000 copies before the couple sold it to Doubleday, followed by Bookcraft.

Pearson, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been involved with opening dialogue between Christians, including Mormons, and the gay community since before the death of her ex-husband from AIDS in 1986.

The Pearsons were married for 12 years and had four children.

Pearson wrote Goodbye, I Love You, published by Random House, in 1986. The book speaks about her relationship, her husband’s struggle with AIDS and his death at her house as she sang to him.

She said she wrote the book to shed light on the plight of the many gay people who have been rejected by their families.

Pearson is currently involved with an concept called proposition healing. She said, “It’s just an ongoing work of mine… it’s my work.”

This is an explanation from the proposition healing website: “We began as a small group of Mormons and gay people in Northern California.  An evening of sitting together, breaking bread and eating soup — and talking, talking, talking — brought us an increase of hope and of love. We decided to do it again, with others. Then again. And again. And again.”

Pearson is the author of Mother Wove the Morning, a play in which she portrays 16 females. Pearson created the play to open a dialogue about the lack of a female deity in male-dominated religious circles. The play was shown in Walnut Creek in 1989 to a sold-out crowd its first night.

Pearson has been immersed in the local arts scene for many years and has written prolifically. Many of her books are available at the Walnut Creek Library.

Her brother has set up a donation link on her website, though she said that she would prefer greetings and well-wishes.