Book sheds light on role of psychic medium
'Go Out and Live — A 27-year Journey of Courage' chronicles short life of Unity College student
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
UNITY — Before the discernment even began, Allison Hall knew that her parents had arranged a meeting with prominent psychic medium George Anderson, Kenneth and Doris Hall learned from Anderson.
Ken and Doris Hall, authors of ³Go Out and Live,² stand with Allison Hallıs birth mother, Frances Armitage, on the Unity College campus. click to enlarge
Allison Hall contacted Anderson, who later pointed out to her parents that spirits are just as anxious for such meetings as we are. It was 1998 — seven years after Allison had lost a seven-year battle with cancer. But her adoptive parents were still torn by the loss.
Someone familiar with their misery had recommended the Halls to Anderson, subject of a book entitled "We Don't Die." Though the Halls are true to their Presbyterian faith, they have never been the same since that first meeting.
"Anderson can perceive people who have gone over," Kenneth Hall said. "Nobody has been able to disprove him. They've tried. I believe he's got a gift.
The Halls devote the first chapter of their new book, "Go Out and Live," to the discernment with Anderson. They did a book signing recently at Unity College, where Allison Hall found great happiness as she fought through the early years of her disease.
The doctor who told her at age 16 that she had less than three years to live had told Allison to "Go out and live." Those words became her credo, the Halls said, both spiritually and practically for the remainder of her life.
Allison's birth mother, Frances Armitage, joined the Kings for their weekend stay in Unity. Wanting to alert her that there was a history of cancer in the family, Armitage made a determined search for her daughter, . Before Armitage finally located the Halls, she already knew, by looking at a Social Security death index in a Mormon genealogy, that her daughter had passed. But she wanted to meet the people who had reared her, and to find out what her daughter had looked like.
"When I relinquished her I had never seen her," Armitage said. "When I had dreams of her, I had dreams of this faceless baby.
"Go Out and Live" is newly released. Written mostly by Doris Hall, an English teacher and professor, the hard-bound book sells for $24. Kenneth Hall is a retired business executive. They live in Upper Saddle River, N.J., near where Allison was raised.
"We're getting listed at Barnes & Noble as we talk," Kenneth Hall said. "And they're available at the Unity campus book store.
The book recounts Allison Hall's active personal life through a human-interest narrative. It took first place in the biography category the 2003 Santa Barbara Writers Conference.
"I dare you!" wrote critic and educator Barnaby Conrad, author of 'Matador.' "Try reading this beautiful heartfelt book without moisture in the eye, a clutch at the heart and hope in the soul."
After the bad news, 17-year-old Allison Hall began taking her doctor's advice. She left high school and home, moving to a nearby town. She moved in with another girl who Doris Hall described a free spirit.
"It was brewing," Doris Hall said. "At the tender age of 16 she had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. As time went on, she wanted a different direction in life, rather than stay in a demanding high school.
Kenneth Hall served as a self-described "buffer" between his daughter and wife. Soon, they were back in each other's good graces. Soon, Allison earned her high school GED. She asked about college and decided to look around Maine, where the Halls had vacationed.
Unity College, a leading environmental institution, was an easy choice in 1983 for the girl who had grown up in a suburban setting.
"It was noncompetitive and devoted to the environment," Doris Hall said. "She came here sight unseen, on faith. The faculty here was a nurturing family.
At Unity, Allison Hall connected with friends, and traveled around the state. She majored in outdoor recreation.
"She loved the freedom that the school offered," Kenneth Hall said.
Four years after her first operations, Allison's cancer recurred and more surgery was required. She made several trips back to Maine, however. She then moved back to the Unity area, living on a dairy farm.
In the book, the Halls describe those years as the happiest of Allison's life.
She spent her last year at School Street Village in Unity.
"Maine was where she felt a serenity," Doris Hall said. "She felt that healing could come here.
Armitage began the search for her daughter in 1988. Living in Green Bay, Wisc., she went back to Arizona, where everyone involved lived when Allison was born. But because of its proximity to Mexico, birth and death records were not public, she said.
"It was very slow because, No. 1, I had a lot of issues to deal with that I had never death with," Armitage said. "I would get discouraged and life would get in the way. I had three other children.
Allison had made some attempts to locate her birth mother, include an inquiry published in Seventeen Magazine.
Finally, Armitage located the people who had purchased the Halls' Arizona home 27 years earlier. That led her to the Halls' home in Ramsey, N.J. The Halls were in Santa Barbara at the time, but they checked their telephone messages.
"We just weren't thinking along those lines," Kenneth Hall said. "A woman said she was your daughter's birth mother and she wants to meet you.
Armitage and the Halls first met in Phoenix, in 1997. Armitage wanted badly to see a photograph of her daughter.
"It was emotional," she said.
The Halls tape-recorded their sessions with Anderson.
"He said she was there (with us)," Kenneth Hall recalled. "The first person she said showed up was a brother of mine who died when I was 5. (Anderson) has commentary in this presentation that nobody would know.
Anderson, with a pad and pen, wrote down what Allison was communicating to him.
"She said she runs a humane society and works with children," Kenneth Hall said.
Anderson told the Halls that departed people live at a "much higher frequency." Both are comforted by the contact.
"It healed us," Kenneth Hall said.
Former Morning Sentinel reporter and columnist Gerry Boyle wrote three stories on Allison Hall and her courageous journey through life. The Halls said that Boyle, in his third story two years ago, urged publishers to go with the book.
Beaver's Pond Press, Inc., of Edina, Minn., took Boyle's advice. The Santa Barbara Writers Conference, obviously, believes it was good advice.
Single orders are available from www.BookHouseFulfillment.com or by calling 1-800-901-3480.
Larry Grard — 487-3288
lgrard@centralmaine.com