Point Loma native writes debut book about family secrets

Prosecutor-turned-author Debbie Russell has written her first book, “Crossing Fifty-One: Not Quite a Memoir,” about uncovering skeletons in her family’s closet.

Point Loma native Russell’s story grew from letters she discovered after the death of her grandfather, Dr. Ralph Russell, a prominent San Diego doctor who lived in Loma Portal in the 1950s. In it, she reveals she learned that Dr. Russell risked everything to voluntarily enter a locked federal drug-treatment facility (one of only two nationwide then) known as a “narcotic farm” for addiction to Demerol, barbiturates, and Morphine Sulphate.

Of her introduction to novel writing, Russell said: “I was one of those people, a criminal prosecutor, who was living a life where people would frequently say to me, ‘You need to write a book.’ This book started off like a research project because of this file folder of letters I found of my grandfather’s. It was so fascinating, so compelling.”

Russell came into possession of the revealing letters about “family matters passed down through the generations” in a box given to her by her parents after they vacated the home she grew up in. “I don’t recall what prompted me to find those letters in my basement,” she said. “I may have been looking for something when I opened that file folder with a rubber band around it. I pulled it out and among the first items was this letter from my grandfather and his I.D. card from when he went into this (drug rehab) facility.”

Russell expressed shock finding out this deep dark family secret about a relation that, apparently, no one knew had gone through substance-abuse treatment in a locked facility, which people took a much dimmer view of in that time period.

“There were little hints like those in a letter from my grandmother that said, ‘We can’t go through this again,’” Russell said. She pointed out the 51 in her book title has a deeper meaning, referring to both the age her grandfather was when he went to “quasi-prison” to get drug treatment and the age she was when her father went into hospice care and she was “struggling with grief that he was going to be gone.”

Concerning her novel’s framework, Russell said, “It’s a dual timeline between the experiences I went through with my dad over a 2 1/2-year period and my grandfather’s four-month stay in the (drug) treatment program.”

Russell characterized “Crossing Fifty-One” as “three generations of mid-life crises.” But she added there were important life lessons learned from writing her book.

“What I discovered at the end is just how much in common I had with my grandfather who I did not ever know. I was able to see his influence, his optimism, his resilience, and his perseverance. And I realized all those qualities were in me.”

Debbie Russell splits time between Minneapolis, Minn., and Point Loma where she still has family residing. “Crossing Fifty-One: Not Quite a Memoir” was released by Koehler Books on June 20 in paperback selling for $19.95.

Russell will be signing books at Warwick’s “Weekends with Locals” program on Sunday, Aug. 6 at noon, and at a “Friends of the Library” event at the Point Loma Hervey Branch Library on Wednesday, Aug. 9 at 1 p.m.