When Life Takes an Unexpected Turn: A Personal Story

Dear friends,

It's 2025, the year of Jane Austen!

As we celebrate Jane's 250th birthday in 2025, I am delighted to share that I will be participating in events in Australia, England, Scotland, The Netherlands, and the United States, to share childhood memories of growing up in Chawton where Jane herself lived and wrote and my Austen heritage. Details will be announced in the coming weeks and months.

As well as the joy of meeting new people, I am looking forward to reconnecting in person with Austen friends around the world and finally meeting friends I have known online for many years.

Before I see you all, I want to share a recent chapter from my life, and why I was unavailable for most of 2024.

Life has a way of upending our carefully laid plans without warning or permission.

In May of last year, I excitedly announced my plans for a tour across the United States in 2025 to celebrate my fifth great aunt Jane Austen's 250th birthday—an opportunity I had been looking forward to sharing with many of you. Just two weeks later, everything changed when my husband, Roger, was diagnosed with tongue cancer.

In an instant, our calendar cleared, our priorities shifted, and the tour—along with many other commitments—had to be set aside. I had to abandon my plans to travel to the UK in June for Jane Austen Regency Week and handed over the annual events I host to my wonderful family and the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation volunteers to manage in my absence.

My family at Jane Austen Regency Week 2024. From L to R: My parents, Carol and Jeremy Knight (Edward Austen’s 3rd great grandson), Pea (the youngest member of our family), my nephew Robin, his partner Kirsty (in green), my brother Paul Edward Knight and his partner Sue (in orange).

When the Ground Shifts Beneath You

The news of Roger's diagnosis was shocking, as it is for everyone who is unlucky enough to hear those words. Initially, I approached it with what I thought was practicality—I could continue working, planning, writing while supporting Roger through his treatment, surely? But as we learned more about what lay ahead—seven weeks of daily radiotherapy, weekly chemotherapy, and months of recovery—reality began to sink in.

We received the blessing of good news amid the difficult—Roger's prognosis was favourable, and much to our elated relief, he wouldn't need the disfiguring surgery that often accompanies this diagnosis. However, the treatment itself would be one of the most gruelling experiences either of us had ever faced or imagined.

I won't detail the specifics of Roger's treatment journey or recovery—that story belongs to him. But I will share that it was far more devastating than either of us could prepare for. The doctors had warned us how much time we would spend at the hospital each day, how debilitating the treatment would be, and how much care he would require. In total, we were looking at three months of intensive caregiving.

Roger was and is top priority, of course, but we were both significantly impacted. As things progressed, I noticed my mental capacities beginning to slip away. Strategic thinking, focus, creativity—all seemed to dissolve in the face of this crisis. I couldn't remember what we had discussed from day to day. The ability to create—whether writing, planning, or envisioning the future—simply vanished and, at one point, I was worried it would never come back.

Jane's Unfinished Novel

I remember thinking about my 6th great-grandfather, George Austen, and the profound impact his death had on Jane. While living in Bath in 1805, Jane was in the midst of writing what we now know as The Watsons when her father passed away unexpectedly.

The family's financial security vanished, and they were forced to rely on the generosity of Jane's brothers. More poignantly, Jane's creative voice fell silent. The Watsons is the only one of her novels she never returned to complete.

Life's interruptions have been challenging the creative spirit for generations. Even one of literature's most brilliant minds found herself unable to continue in the face of profound loss. But it came back; Jane did recover.

There is something deeply comforting in knowing we are not alone in our struggles—that even Jane Austen experienced periods where life's challenges overwhelmed her creative capacities.

Finding a Way Through

In Jane's own words, which have carried me through many difficult moments:

There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.

Facing this profoundly challenging circumstance, I made a pivotal decision early on: We had a very difficult chapter ahead, there was no other option, but I would not allow it to define our future. Like a phoenix rising from ashes, we would emerge renewed.

As I felt my normal functioning diminishing, I knew I needed to establish some structure to get myself through, before it was too late.

I made a difficult but necessary decision to step back from almost all professional commitments:

- The U.S. tour was postponed indefinitely

- Speaking events and appearances for the rest of 2024 were cancelled, including The Bath Festival in September

- Projects were put on hold, including finishing and publishing the next instalment of my 2017 memoir Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage

Living in Australia, far from our families, Roger and I faced this challenge largely on our own. I reached out to create a small but mighty support network—my fitness group, a close local friend who offered weekly coffee (my only respite from caregiving, other than walking our dog, Rufus), my mother in the UK available at any hour by phone, and a neighbour who agreed to be our emergency contact.

Throughout those three months, I maintained a daily journal—a practice that became my emotional sanctuary. When I couldn't speak of my fears aloud, the page received them without judgment. When small victories appeared, the journal preserved them. This simple act of putting pen to paper helped me process what was happening in real-time and proved invaluable in maintaining some semblance of emotional equilibrium.

You can read more about the plan I implemented to survive this challenge HERE.

Finding Our Way Forward

Life doesn't snap back to normal after such an experience. After the intensity of Roger's treatment was over, it took a couple of months for my mental clarity to return.

During this gradual recovery, I focused on rebuilding my strength through exercise, prioritizing sleep, spending time in nature, and giving myself permission to progress day by day rather than leaping immediately back into full stride.

The experience was undeniably the most challenging period of our lives, but there was light waiting. Roger was declared cancer-free just before Christmas—the best gift we could have received.

In January, my mother came from England for a couple of weeks. She had offered to come and support us through Roger's treatment, but we decided to wait until it was over. Mum's visit proved more healing than I could have anticipated. After months of life becoming so small, with just Roger and I at home focusing on one overwhelming thing, it was difficult to expand back into normal conversations and making plans for the future. Her presence, conversation, and gentle encouragement to venture out again helped lift both Roger and me from the post-treatment fog.

Now, six months after Roger completed his treatment, we find ourselves changed. Roger is doing well, despite the long-term impacts of his treatment. Life will never be exactly as it was before—how could it be? But we have emerged with a deeper appreciation for each day and a clearer sense of what matters most.

Celebrating Jane's 250th Birthday

While I would never have chosen this path, we have a lot to be thankful for and the experience has crystallized my purpose with greater clarity.

I have recently launched The Austen Pathway, with my business partner, Melissa Makarewicz, aka The Literary Assistant. My experience as a CEO taught me a lot about how to build and market businesses. After building the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation and my coaching practice, and becoming an author over the last decade, I move forward with renewed determination to share this hard-won wisdom and lessons I have learned from Jane, with authors and creatives seeking to build sustainable, flourishing businesses.

It’s important to harness joyful moments in our lives and, now I am able, I am determined to enjoy Jane’s milestone year as much as I can. My schedule is once again filling with events and opportunities to connect with Austen enthusiasts, share the legacy that has shaped my life so profoundly, and promote the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation.

I have some big news coming in 2025, which will be announced later in the year.

What I can tell you is that I am particularly looking forward to hosting 'Jane Austen's Birthday Celebration with Jane's Family' in person at Chawton House in June, and as an online event for my Substack subscribers in July.

Best of all, I am honoured to have been asked to unveil a new statue of Jane Austen in the UK.

I am excited about the year ahead and am extremely grateful that I can join the celebrations. Subscribe for behind-the-scenes insights into my Austen year and to be the first to know about news, events and tickets.

I wanted to share this personal chapter with you now, so that when we meet at these events, we can focus on celebrating Jane's extraordinary life. While this experience has undoubtedly shaped me, it need not dominate our conversations when there is so much joyful celebration ahead.

A Final Thought

For all of you facing your own difficult challenges, whatever form they may take, my thoughts are with you—may you find the strength, support, and resilience to navigate this season and emerge with renewed purpose.

Take care and I look forward to celebrating Jane Austen’s 250th birthday year with you.

Caroline

© Caroline Jane Knight