Michele Kay, an international journalist and former St. Edward’s University professor, led a life that was anything but ordinary. Born in Cairo, Egypt, Kay was exiled at the age of 12 and fled with her family to Hong Kong. 

During her life, Kay lived all over the world, including San Francisco, Paris, London and Austin. In Feb. 2011, she died at the age of 66 from a brain tumor.

Her memoir, “What Once Seemed Strange: A Memoir of Egyptian Exile from Cairo to Austin,” was published this fall and is available for purchase in the St. Edward’s bookstore.

At the age of 58, Kay attended college for the first time at St. Edwards to pursue her master’s in Liberal Arts. That is where she met professor Catherine Rainwater, who agreed to be Kay’s master’s thesis adviser.

“I found out she had all those years as a journalist, and I knew it would be fun to work with her,” Rainwater said. “She started to tell me about her life, and her life was fascinating.”

Kay’s thesis, a combination of an academic paper and a personal narrative, uses the story of her life after her family’s exile from Egypt to explore the topic of displacement.

After Kay received her MLA, she and Rainwater became colleagues at St. Edward’s, but more importantly they became life-long friends.

In 2009, less than a year after she retired, Kay was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

“I would say the friendship was more solidified, because when you watch someone go through something like that, it’s really intense,” Rainwater said.

Many people had encouraged Kay to write a memoir, and she always intended to do so, but it was not much of a priority  until she was diagnosed.

Kay’s husband, Robert Schultz, and her friends Cathy Rosenthal, Mary Ann Roser,  Retta Van Auken and Rainwater set to work to turn Kay’s thesis paper into a memoir.

“Everyone wanted to help her testify to this fascinating life of hers,” Rainwater said.

Rainwater took the academic writing out  of the thesis and left the personal narrative. She also rearranged the story to read as a suspenseful narrative.

St. Edward’s journalism professor Jena Heath,  a close friend of Kay’s, applauds Rainwater’s dedication to publishing Kay’s memoir.

“Many people urged Michele to write a memoir and other friends made notable contributions, but I  know Michele would be especially touched by Catherine’s dedication and hard work on her behalf,” Heath said.

According to Schultz, Rainwater did the initial editing and reorganization, so the text was basically unchanged for most of the three month review process. 

Roser helped to fill in missing pieces of the narrative by interviewing Kay about her life and her family’s life.

Schultz and Van Auken’s worked with the designer to decide on the front and back covers for the book as well as the formatting of the text inside the book.

“Many people spent many hours on this book, and that’s the testament to Michele’s lifetime of friendship with many people,” Schultz said.