PORT ANGELES — The slim woman with the avocado-green backpack — seen these days riding the bus or walking near her Lake Sutherland home — went on a pilgrimage across France and Spain.
In both 2011 and 2012, Megan Timothy walked the Camino de Santiago, the 500-mile route to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, where the Apostle St. James’ remains are believed to be kept.
All along the way, Timothy entered cathedrals to sing.
But Timothy, 71, is not religious, at least not in the traditional sense; she walked and sang to find her voice — and herself.
Brain injury
Timothy has traveled a long road since she suffered a massive brain injury Sept. 2, 2003.
She was just 60 when, as she puts it, her brain exploded. An AVM — arteriovenous malformation — ruptured and left her unable to walk, speak or write.
The ensuing years were given over to Timothy’s self-rehabilitation. Following brain surgery, she slowly rebuilt her life. To prove she could regain her independence, Timothy took off across the United States on her bicycle.
Memoirs
In 2009, she published a book, 12,000 Miles for Hope’s Sake, about her transcontinental ride.
Her writing appetite wasn’t yet satisfied, so in 2010, she published Let Me Die Laughing, a memoir.
This year found her living just outside Port Angeles to look after her friends Don and Suzie Nunley’s place at the lake.
She still walks — she aims to log 10 miles daily — but this being Timothy, thoughts of another big project followed her on these sojourns.
“At the beginning of this year, I said: I want to make an album. I’ve got to do it now. How much longer do I have?”
Timothy was born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and came to the United States at age 21 to seek her fortune.
She has been an actress in movies, a Playboy bunny working at Hugh Hefner’s mansion in Los Angeles and a screenwriter.
But 50 years later, the woman admits she still has stage fright. So it wasn’t easy for her to phone Port Angeles voice teacher Michael Rivers.
CD release
She did it anyway, and now, Timothy faces another stage-frightful moment: the release party for “As I Wander: Songs of Christmas,” her CD recorded at Jeremy Cays’ studio in Sequim.
The event, free and open to all ages, is set for 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at Wine on the Waterfront, upstairs in The Landing mall, 115 E. Railroad Ave.
In a recent interview, Timothy recalled one time she tried to sing while walking in France. She was on the labyrinth at the Chartres cathedral, barefoot.
“I have to sing,” she remembers thinking.
But “I opened my mouth, and nothing came out.”
Eventually, she emitted a squawk; then, little by little, the words to songs.
“Music, for me, is a lifeline to everything,” Timothy said.
In her first meeting with Rivers, she sang for him, and he reacted with surprise, saying, “I think you do have a voice.” Since then, Rivers and Timothy have worked long and hard together.
Both he and Cays “have been wonderful; so patient,” Timothy said.
“As I Wander” includes carols such as “Silent Night,” “The First Noel” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” songs Timothy chose for their familiarity. The album is meant as a gift for others who have suffered injuries like Timothy’s so they can sing along, hum along and connect with this medicine.
“I know, when one is coming out of a stroke, how lost you are,” she said.
Rivers, producer of “As I Wander,” said the project was tough going, but “Megan is fierce,” he said.
When they sought to record “O Holy Night,” the song proved to be beyond difficult.
“At one point, sitting in the control room, I said into her headphones, ‘Megan, maybe this song is too much. Maybe we scratch it.’
“She got a strange look on her face, and said: ‘No. I will do this.’”
“O Holy Night” is “the hugest song on the CD,” Rivers said, adding that “her high A flat at the end soars.”
“When I sing, on a good day, I fly so high,” said Timothy.
“It’s such a trip. You don’t know where you are.”
Yet when she listens to the CD, the singer hears a thousand mistakes.
‘Shut up and sing’
“Michael and I argue a lot” about perfectionism, she said, and often, the arguments end with him saying: “Shut up and sing.”
At this Sunday’s album-release party, Timothy will sign copies of “As I Wander,” tell her story and sing a little.
She’s not comfortable with that last part, saying, “I’m busy having a heart attack.”
Not that discomfort will stop her.
This singing and CD-promotion business is “another adventure . . . like life,” Timothy said.
“You’re on this roller coaster,” she said. “Hang on tight. It’s bumpy sometimes.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
