When Ancestors Call: Brigid Kennedy on Family History, Dreams & Writing the Book

A grandmother shows up in a vivid 2 a.m. dream with one urgent message: write our real family history before it disappears.

That dream becomes the spark that sends Brigid Kennedy, a professional violinist, violin teacher, and longtime “behind the scenes” supporter of her husband’s academic career, into a completely new identity as a published author and storyteller.

In this episode of the Women Like Me Stories & Business Podcast, Julie Fairhurst sits down with Brigid Kennedy to talk about family history, ancestral stories, spiritual guidance, writing, courage, and the calling to preserve the stories that could vanish if no one writes them down.

Brigid shares how she began with the practical steps of genealogy research — names, dates, places, and the familiar chaos of unlabeled family photos — before her family narrative hit a hard stop. Her research led to the extraordinary story of her great-grandfather’s journey from Ireland to Peru, a monastery wedding in 1910, and his later disappearance into the Amazon rainforest.

With the historical record incomplete, Brigid made a brave, creative decision: she wrote into the gap.

By weaving Irish myths and Incan legends into the missing pieces of her family story, Brigid created something more than fiction. Her book became a reclamation of roots, a way to restore connection, and a form of healing for a family that had carried unanswered questions for generations.

Julie and Brigid also talk about the real work behind writing a book when you do not have a writing degree, an agent, or a roadmap. They explore handling critique, fighting imposter syndrome, carving out time while juggling motherhood and work, and navigating the visibility of becoming an author in the age of TikTok and Instagram.

This conversation is for anyone who has been searching for motivation to preserve family history, start a memoir, write a novel, or finally begin the story that keeps tugging at their heart.

Sometimes the story chooses you before you feel ready to choose it.

If this episode speaks to you, subscribe, share it with a friend who has “one day” plans, and leave a review so more listeners can find Women Like Me Stories & Business.

What family story do you want to save before it is gone?

Learn more about Brigid Kennedy:

Website:  https://www.brigidkennedybooks.com/

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@BrigidKennedyBooks

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/BrigidKennedyBooks/

TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@brigidkennedybooks

If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins.

Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place.

I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power.

Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast

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Transcript

Welcome And The Big Mystery

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Women Like Me Stories in Business. I am just thrilled today to bring Bridget Kennedy to you. She is an author, a violin teacher, and a storyteller. So for years, Bridget describes herself as being the woman behind the woman behind the scenes, a violin teacher, a facility spouse at Virginia Tech, sporting her husband's academic career, and while quietly wondering if she's had anything of her own worth saying. Then everything changed, and at 2 a.m., her grandmother came to visit her in a dream and asked her to write their real family history before it disappeared. I just get shivers when I just even say that. Oh my goodness, I'm so excited. So the dream led Bridget into the extraordinary story of her great-grandfather, Robert Patrick Kennedy, a real Irish treasure hunter who married in a monastery in Peru in 1910 and then later disappeared into the Amazon. This is going to be such an amazing chat we're going to have. With no writing degree, no agent, no publisher, no roadmap, Bridget said yes anyway. She made a pot of coffee and she began writing. So this conversation's about listening to the calling, preserving family history, saying yes before you feel ready, and discovering that being behind the scenes doesn't mean your story is not waiting to be told. So, Bridget, welcome, welcome to Women Like Me Stories in Business. I'm happy that you're here. Would you please start by telling us a little about yourself and who you were before you became published?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Yeah. So I am a wife, a mother, a professional violinist. And so I went to university to study just music. And in all my my career, I have been teaching violin and youth orchestras and performing in musicals, operas, and symphonies. And that that was my life. That was my life until three years ago.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Wow. That uh that's that's exciting. Very exciting. Yeah. So you describe yourself as someone who was behind the scenes for many years. Now that didn't sound like you were behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Well, you know, my husband is a faculty member at Virginia Tech University, and and I'm a very traditional wife, right? We support the husband's dreams. We moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, which is where Virginia Tech is, and and it's away from all the major symphonies and cities. So it's a quiet little small town in and nestled in the mountains. And so stepping away from that so much so that there wasn't any uh stream programs or music programs here. I had to start that from scratch to build up. So I knew I was leaving Houston, right? Houston takes big city, lots of fine arts and everything to come and support my husband's career here.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Oh, oh, that's beautiful. Well, how did music shape your discipline, creativity, and storytelling storytelling?

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Oh my goodness, this is an excellent question, Julie. Oh my goodness. So, first off, I think because I'm I am a violinist, and when you train classically, there's one right way. And and and to play a note, to play the song correctly and truly, and all we get is feedbacks and and corrections, critiques, and until we can get it to the perfect spot, that perfection. And when it happens, it kind of feels like uh you feel the soul of the composer matching your soul when it really

Behind The Scenes In A New Town

SPEAKER_00 4:30

truly becomes part of you, and it's a beautiful thing, but I took that experience of being constantly critiqued, and we don't take it to heart as musicians because it only pushes us to be better. So I took that ability to be critiqued and not be hurt into my writing. And so when I had friends and family like reviewing stuff for me, sometimes they were very afraid to express their opinion or or you know suggest a different path or a character or whatever. And I'm like, oh no, give it to me because I just want I just want the best book to be delivered to the world.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Oh, for sure. So I'm sure everybody's just sitting on pins and needles waiting for me to ask the question. So I'm just gonna ask it. Tell us about your grandmother and your dream.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

It was 2 a.m. I was already dead asleep, and she came to me. And it wasn't like a foggy vision or dream. I mean, she was there, present. It was her face, her voice. And she woke me up and and and she got right to the point, like how she always did, and she said, write our story. And I sat up in the dark and I thought about the words and what she was asking me, and I knew what she was asking me. She was asking me about to preserve the history of my great-grandfather and all the tellings, and like when the families gathered around the table at the holidays and special occasions, all of those tellings. But even when the family was gathered and I was hearing stories about my roots. When the photographs came out, you know, they weren't properly labeled. And, you know, some people forgot like the exact name of a distant relative. So I I knew that every generation it was kind of slipping by, right? The the the the true history. And so she wanted me to preserve that. And and I felt it, I felt it in my heart so much that right then and there I got up, I made a pot of coffee, and that was the easy part because it was almost like genealogy. It was writing the names and the dates, right? Researching, trying to get all the places and everything correct. But you know, Julie, our family story always hits the same roadblock where the moment that my great-grandfather never came back out of the Amazon and came home. And that's when the family history crumbled apart, and we lost so much. We lost, of course, him, but we lost all the connection to the his parents in Ireland. I mean, back in the day, there was just not that connection. You couldn't just get the internet and look up and get the addresses back then, and so a lot of our history fell apart and it just left a huge hole in our hearts. And when I wrote my story,

Classical Training Meets Writing Grit

SPEAKER_00 7:55

I started with the genealogy part, but then I got to that spot where my great-grandfather disappeared. And I kind of stopped and I I looked down at my paper, and I was like, So what do I do now? And that's when I decided to continue the story, and so I wrote it where the kids, when they got old enough, they were able to find his journal and a hand sketch map. And they were like, let's let's put an end to this chapter, let's find the clues, figure out what debt, and just kind of move on with our lives. And so when the siblings crossed into the magical borders of the Amazon, that's where all the fantasy happened because we don't know the truth about what happened to him in the Amazon. We don't know what he saw, we don't know what he found, we don't know what kept him from coming back home to us. And so what I did is I allowed myself to write the Kennedy family in that gap. And yes, I was writing at that point now fantasy and everything. But now that I've written it and I've been able to talk about it with wonderful podcasts and wonderful authors, I realized now that I wasn't just writing fantasy, I was writing a reclamation of our family history, but I was it was also healing because that hole in the heart that we all felt, my story is the healing of that, all the family coming together, finding what happened to their dad. And and now that all my family has been able to read that, it kind of gives us a connection again, a unity. And I never thought that writing something like that would heal so much of what was missing in our lives.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Wow, that is that's wonderful. And it's so important because I mean, you have quite quite a history, you know, where he disappears into the Amazon. But even ourselves, you know, I have one auntie left on my mom's side, and uh, and I ask her some questions and she's you know not really sure about things. Yeah. And so, yeah, and and and like you say, the pictures and all of that kind

The 2 A.M. Dream And The Ask

SPEAKER_01 10:35

of thing. And for you to be able to take and and and put all of that together for your future generations is it's wonderful. Roots, we need to know our roots, it's important.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Yeah, and that's that was the main part that I it was like it was like light being into my soul because my daughter, she was a teenager, and I thought she was old enough to finally truly understand where her ancestors came from. And our story, what they did in their time was remarkable. And I wanted her to know that if someday she feels the need to adventure and to go quest and to find something and to travel, that's her ancestors calling her. And I wanted her to know that that fact. And so to really figure out what your roots come from, you know, everybody is yearning to connect and to know that they're part of a bigger picture, right? And to know what part of themselves is from what part of the family, that just that connection. And I I think everyone has that yearning and that feeling. And I was so proud that I was able to give that to my daughter, but also to all of my family as a gift of love for healing.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Yes, absolutely. Well, what do you believe happens when family stories are not written down? I guess you can tell us. I mean, you had such a mystery there, but but what happens, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Uh, you know, I think it eats away at us little by little. And and when we lose that connection from our elders, and I think it kind of sets us in adrift a little bit. Yeah. And and, you know, I I recently went back to Ireland and I walked the streets that my grandfather walked, stood at the castle, right? Felt that wild Irish cold Atlantic air whipping through me at the cliffs of Moor, and breathed in everything that that was our roots, right? I felt the soil underneath my shoes. I and I just really felt connected to the story and to my characters that that I created into my book. And it just all blended and hit home for me. And and I I want everybody to have that own feeling with their own family. So yeah, if if you heard, you know, the a tale about your family history or a great mystery or something that happened, write it down because nobody else can tell that story besides you. That is your family history, your your story to tell. And and even though you may not like me, I was a music major. I had I I knew nothing about the publishing world or how to write. All it takes is that first step. And that's the hardest one, that first step, and just begin your journey.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yeah, wow. What was the most surprising thing you discovered whilst researching your family history?

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Well, so so when my great-grandfather left Ireland, he brought his younger brother John, one year younger. And and when they came over to Peru, to get from the Fort Olima to the Peruvian Amazons, you have to cross through a town called Arequipa. And that's where my great-grandmother's hacienda was. And they they met there at the hacienda, they end up falling in love, but hearing the love story of these two just blew my mind away. And I wrote that into the novellas, the second part of my book. And hearing that love story, so a little teaser on here. The Rodriguez family in in Arequipa was very wealthy, and they had like box seats, front row seats to their uh bullfighting ring. And so they decided to take the Irish brothers to see a Spanish bull fighting competition. And my great-grandfather got so excited, he was jumping up and down, up and down, and he leapt right over the railing and landed in the dirt ring of the arena and fought the bull. And on one drastic

Filling The Amazon Gap With Healing

SPEAKER_00 15:20

pass, the bull, right, came by and in the whole arena was shouting, gringo, gringo, which means bright guy. And and so uh, so then my my grandfather he he turned and looked at my great-grandmother and kind of smiled at her, like, look at me, you know, I'm I'm such a man. And right then the bull turned its horns and impaled him. And his thigh and his and his ribs launched him in the air and smack. And so the the medics came and rescued him and was able to save his life, but he couldn't go into the Amazon like planned on the very next day because he had deadly wounds. So my grandmother, great-grandmother, she nursed him back to health, and that's when they fell in love. So while she was nursing him back to health, his younger brother got the map and he was like, Let me go and check with the local tribes in the Amazon and just see if this map is true, if it holds water, right? If we're on the right track. So he went into the Amazons and he actually fell in love with a tribal lady, and he decided to live in the Amazon, and they got married, and they had two daughters in the heart of the jungle and the heart of the rainforest, and that's where they lived. So that's why when my great-grandfather, when he healed, he had to go on those expeditions by himself, and it was the last expedition that he never came back. And so when he came back, nobody knew how to contact our Uncle John in the Amazon, and so that whole part of the family got lost. Nobody knew how to contact his parents back into Ireland. So hearing these stories, their love story, hearing the story about my Uncle John in the Amazon, which is like mind-blowing, it's crazy. But then I also learned that Robert and Eudosha, they had two kids, a cat, Catalina, my grandmother, and Robert the second. So Robbie. And so Robbie, true story, he continued the treasure hunting park tradition of our family. And he would take a tourist into the Amazon, and and he actually found the famed mass of Incan Gold, which should proves that treasure still can be found to this day. And that that mask lives in the the Museum of Gold in Lima, Peru, to this day. Wow. So hearing all of these wonderful family history and knowing that we have treasure hunting adventure running, coursing through our veins, it's just fantastic to hear and to find out.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

It is just an amazing family history. Goodness sakes. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

And on my YouTube channel, I'm doing a fantastic series where I'm actually reading every chapter of the book, but I'm also sharing my my full true history. And I'm holding up, I show the actual wedding pictures of Robert and Eudosha in 1910 at the monastery, at the hacienda. I'm showing the true pictures of Kat and Robbie and sharing our life with everybody during during the YouTube episodes.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

What a gift you're giving to your future generations.

unknown 19:05

I know.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Preserving, preserving that history.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Yes, yes, and just it'll lift them up. It'll lift them up. I just know it. Wow. Well, how did you keep going with logical? Like, did you have any any concerns that maybe you thought you were the wrong person to be doing this?

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Or well, you life, right? Right. I I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I already had a career.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

And and this was where do we put find the time to put on the extra hat, right? To wear another hat. That was the huge

Bullfights Treasure Hunts And Lost Branches

SPEAKER_00 19:50

challenge. Trying to separate this stuff. And I felt the mother guilt big time, right? So every hour I spent writing down this calling that I had, I felt it. I felt like I had to do this. But every hour, every day, every afternoon that I could have been with my family, I was locked away writing. And that mother guilt was huge to combat. But just to find that time to do it in the busyness of life, that was a huge challenge.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Yes. Yeah, for for sure. And and it uh and it takes time to write, to get it all out, and especially when you're doing that kind of research as well. It's not even it's not just about the writing, it's about the research and the in the and the history and finding all of that as well. Wow. Well, so what was the hardest pipe part of writing the story or writing the book?

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Imposter syndrome. Oh of course. I I am a violinist, you know, I I write notes, I don't write novels. And who is I to sit down and write a fantasy novel? I mean, imposter syndrome, big time, those little negative lies that you tell yourself, right? They can they can feel so strong. And what I had to do, I couldn't shake it because I wasn't a writer, right? There was there was some truth in that. And so what I had to do is I had to push it, push it way down, kind of lock it away. And I had to learn, learn to be an author, learn to write, learn the craft through that doubt. And I kept telling myself that nobody has it 100% perfected before they even begin. Nobody knows every answer before they start their personal. Journey. And I had to say, it is, it is a learning experience. This is the experience that I'm going to get to write my book and to be able to make my grandmother smile at me at the end. And so I had to, I had to do something with that imposter syndrome. And I just had to learn to push through it and write with it.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Yeah. That's a very inspirational. And I'm I I really appreciate you sharing that because I think that a lot of women think, oh, my story is not important, or you know, it's not if they're writing their own story and and I'm not a writer. But we all are.

unknown 22:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Yes, yeah, yeah. What was the most magical part of that for you?

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Kind of figuring out that I could do this. That that moment, what is it? Like choosing yourself, I think is the catchphrase, right? When you choose yourself and you give that gift to yourself as a mom, as a wife, all we do is give of ourselves to others, right? It's very hard to give to ourselves right back. And to deliver that. And so I thought it was it was so empowering to myself that I said yes. And I chose that to say yes to this calling. And I chose to allow myself some time to develop it and to prepare it. And and when I got done writing, writing the first draft, and I printed it out, Kinko's, and I held it in my hand, it was it was tangible then. It was no longer something floating in the clouds, right? All this time and tears and energy that I spent, I could hold it in my hands. It was there. That was a magical moment.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Wow. Absolutely. Wow. So what was it? What was the visibility of becoming a published author like for you?

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Okay, so I'm Jen X. I am old school, right? I turn 50 next month. And so I I only had Facebook, right? I just had Facebook and I just had my my family on Facebook. I didn't have like a big open Facebook account. And I quickly realized that I'm going to need a an author uh website, author email. I'm gonna need all the socials. I'm like, I'm gonna have to get on TikTok. I'm gonna have to do Instagram, threads, like everything. And that journey, okay. Of course, anybody can go on and make an account, right? But then we can do with TikTok. What do you do then? And and then you have to start. Okay, so now I have to put my my my family aside, I have to put my music aside, my violin lessons aside, and now I have to create content for five hours every single day. Right? Create content, figure out the algorithms of of when my age group is on like Insta or Instagram or or TikTok. And and and and and work the algorithms and try to you know shout into the void to you know just to see who who I could reach. And I quickly learned that that sucked the life right out of my soul quick.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

But the thing I did realize through all of this is that I love connecting with people, just like we are doing right now on this podcast. I love telling about my story and my YouTube channel, I get to spend all this time just sitting in my story, talking about it. And that's what I loved. I'm like, okay, so this is now my happy path, right? This makes all the writing worth it that I could be happy in that. But when I was trying to do all these social platforms and just like a 15-second TikTok here and there, it it it it was it was overwhelming to do that constantly. So so I think you really have to love what you do, but then also find the path that could get the word out about your story that makes you happy.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Yes, yes, for sure. I love the day that you launched your book. So tell us about tell us about that. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

I did a lot at my my publishing house. I did it. But the day it launched, yes. I woke up, I woke up on St.

Mother Guilt Imposter Syndrome And Social Media

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Patrick's Day on March 16th, and you know, I just kind of grab my phone and I look at it. I'm like, what, you know, what do I need to do today? And I saw an email from Albova Press and I was like, okay, let's open it. And they said, You're live on Amazon right now, and I just lost my mind. It was such a shock, but my book is based on Irish, right? So Irish myths and Incan Legends, and on St. Patter's Day, the luck of the Irish was with me, and it was so with me because my book ended up getting on Amazon the first week it launched 75 five-star reviews, which is like whoosh. And so I couldn't have picked a better day to to launch an Celtic story.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Oh, that I I loved that. When I read that, I thought, oh my goodness, that is that what a perfect day. Absolutely the best day. Yeah, love it. So, one of your messages is that being behind the scenes does not mean that you don't have a story worth telling. So, why do you think so many women believe their stories don't matter?

SPEAKER_00 28:28

I think that has it's like an onion, it has lots of layers to that. Um, because I think you have to first start at woman, womanhood, and all that we do as women. That busy life, right? And all the hats that we put on just to get by to the next day, right? And so we have that busy life structure, and to find time in that for ourselves is really hard to do. And then to that second part of that, that our story is worth telling. Well, the thing is, is that you're the only person that could tell that story, and when you get down into the messy details, that nitty gritty, that's where that heart lies. But it takes a little time to peel back and figure out why that story is calling to you. So just like when I just started writing that genealogy, places, names, and dates, right? That was kind of the easy part. But then when I hit that wall where my family always hit the day that he disappeared, I had to figure out why my story, why my grandmother is coming to me on this, and why I feel such a need to do it justice. And and it was that that next chapter in the family, how the crumbled family then became resilient and and pulled themselves up from their bootstraps and and came together once again.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

And so I think you have to find the calling behind the story.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

Yes, for sure. Absolutely. Well, what what are some simple ways that that we women can start preserving our family stories before they disappear?

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Yeah, I think you know, ancestry.com is fantastic to kind of feel figure out where the roots came from, talking to your elders, trying to get those old photographs that's in some dusty old box in an attic or a basement, and going through it and trying to put it in some type of order and sense, and just writing down those stories that you've heard around the family table all your life.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Yeah, yes, absolutely. Well, what advice would you give to someone who feels overwhelmed about the idea of writing a book?

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Honestly, loading pretty soon. Can I I can I can hear you? Okay, fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

You're you're working and all I hear in my my earphones is like power on. I'm like, they were on. Oh power on. I don't know. I don't even know why they set. But honestly, what I would tell tell people is when you take that first step, because writing the book is is actually the fun part. But then when you have to do it by yourself, you know, like an indie author like I am, and you don't have a literary agent to help guide you through the drafts and the editing processes and all that, which is it's just the tip of the iceberg. We have to get down to the marketing and the publishing and and it's just a huge amount of work. It's like a giant mountain in front of you. And and yes, it can seem daunting when you look at it and you're like, I will never get to that summit. Just just take that first step. Take that first step and just start chipping away at that mountain. And suddenly you're gonna stop and look around and see sights that you never thought you would be able to see from that

Preserve Your Roots And Say Yes

SPEAKER_00 32:55

height, and just keep climbing it.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah, yeah. Well, what legacy do you hope to leave through your writing?

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Well, I mean, I'm leaving it for my daughter, for her, her children, for all of our family. That that wonderful story. So it is it is a gift of love, a love letter to to my ancestors. And and honestly, I probably won't make any money off of off of the books. I mean, that's just the truth of being an author. You you really don't make it, and so you're you just have to believe in yourself and love the the joy of writing so much that that's what fulfills you. And I think my daughter watching me through this process, because like I said, I'm almost 50. I already had a career, right? And an established career, and that she knows it's okay to follow your heart and a calling. If you're set on one path, it's okay to veer and and see if something else can bring you true joy. You know, a calling does not ask for permission and it does not ask for your credentials, it's just given to you. And it's not your job to question that calling because it's meant for you in a specific way that you don't even know what it's actually going to change in your life yet. And all you have to do is just say yes to it, and then a whole world would open up to you.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

Thank you for that. Uh just oh it beautiful words and and so important for people because sometimes people I think, you know, they they hear those callings or they get those little nudges, and you know, they're not really sure or they're they're insecure about doing them or fearful. But that was the great, great uh some wisdom that you shared there. I just want to let them a writer, because you're a writer. So I want to let everybody know that in the show notes we'll have a link to Bridget's book. So if you want to purchase her book and and read it, there it is. Love it. Love it. I love it. So yeah, so it'll be there for you. So you'll be able to go ahead and and and do that. Bridget, I have just really enjoyed this conversation and listening to you. You you you tell your story so well.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Oh, it's part of my heart, it's part of my soul, it's my passion. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Exactly. Yes, yes. Well, I appreciate so much of you doing this. And and again, we will have everything in the show notes for folks. And wish you all the all the best. And you've kind of encouraged me. I'm now thinking in my mind here, I've got to, I should start to jot some stuff down before before I'm gone, and nobody knows. Yeah, do it. Go for it. Go for it. Yeah, for sure. Okay, well, thanks again, Bridget. And thank all of you very much for being here for another episode of Women Like Me. Take care, everybody. Bye.