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Mildred Rugger

Mildred Rugger

HPPR Radio Readers Book Club Contributor

Mildred Rugger was born in Spokane, Washington, and then lived a few years in each of these places: Plainview, Texas; two Idaho towns; several Iowa towns; and the Mexico City area. When she settled in San Antonio, Texas, she met a wonderful archivist who became her husband. In 2008, his work led them to Canyon, Texas. For over 25 years, Mildred taught English to adult non-native speakers from over 50 countries. After some years of formation, she was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church in 2016. This led to six years working as a hospice spiritual caregiver. She is now retired but continues as an active deacon at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, serving those in need.

  • Epitaph on the base of the Haymarket Martyrs' Monument, Waldheim Cemetery, Forest Park, Illinois
    HPPR Features
    Fond Hopes Lie Buried Here
    Mildred Rugger
    Hi, everyone. This is Mildred Rugger from Canyon, Texas, for the 2025 Fall Read of HPPR Radio Readers Book Club. Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl has an important subtitle: A Natural History of Loss and Love. In my third book byte, we’re going to explore that idea of loss, especially loss through death.
  • Garden in decomposition
    HPPR Features
    Intermingling with Beauty
    Mildred Rugger
    Hi, everyone. This is Mildred Rugger from Canyon, Texas, for the 2025 Fall Read of HPPR Radio Readers Book Club. If you heard my first book byte on Late Migrations: A Natural History of Loss and Love by Margaret Renkl, you may not be surprised to find that the ideas I will examine in this second book byte involve the natural world and the human world.
  • The Mulberry Tree
    HPPR Features
    Even in the Midst Of
    Mildred Rugger
    Hi, everyone. This is Mildred Rugger from Canyon, Texas, for the 2025 Fall Read of HPPR Radio Readers Book Club. Late Migrations: A Natural History of Loss and Love by Margaret Renkl is about grief, but not exclusively. We often learn about grief indirectly within a broader context.
  • Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss, by Margaret Renkl, 2021
    HPPR Features
    Book Leader Mildred Rugger Discusses "Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss"
    Kathleen Holt
    Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billyl, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees.
  • Tag under the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis
    HPPR Features
    Grief and the Courage to Forgive
    Mildred Rugger
    Hi, everyone. This is Mildred Rugger from Canyon, Texas, for the 2025 Fall Read of HPPR Radio Readers Book Club. As I did my usual pre-reading overview of American Mother by Colum McCann with Diane Foley, I felt like this book would take me for an emotionally heavy ride.
  • The Lincoln family in 1861
    HPPR Features
    Understanding Many Perceptions of Loss
    Mildred Rugger
    Hi, everyone. This is Mildred Rugger from Canyon, Texas, for the 2025 Fall Read of HPPR Radio Readers Book Club. In Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders creatively explores the ideas of what happens after death and of the connection between those who have died and those who still live. He’s not the first to do so, nor will he be the last.