Torch in the Dark

Hadiyah Joan Carlyle’s memoir, Torch in the Dark tells the moving story of how she, as a single mother, pioneered as one of the first women since World War II to enter the trades as a union welder. Beginning in a Jewish immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey, the story moves through San Francisco’s colorful Haight-Ashbury in the sixties to arrive at last at Fairhaven Shipyard in Bellingham, Washington. For Hadiyah, welding became both a path to self-reliance and economic survival, and a metaphor for healing from early childhood trauma.

Hadiyah Joan Carlyle’s memoir, Torch in the Dark tells the moving story of how she, as a single mother, pioneered as one of the first women since World War II to enter the trades as a union welder. Beginning in a Jewish immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey, the story moves through San Francisco’s colorful Haight-Ashbury in the sixties to arrive at last at Fairhaven Shipyard in Bellingham, Washington. For Hadiyah, welding became both a path to self-reliance and economic survival, and a metaphor for healing from early childhood trauma. Hadiyah was passionate in her desire to learn to weld, to feel the power of the torch, to see the fire, to dispel the darkness. The story of Hadiyah’s journey to healing offers profound inspiration for anyone struggling with issues of abuse and oppression. In addition, the book provides an insightful perspective on the culture of the ’60s and ’70s.

Hadiyah Joan Carlyle grew up in a Jewish immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey, became active in the Civil Rights movement of the sixties and migrated to San Francisco’s colorful Haight-Ashbury to be part of the counter-culture there. In the seventies, she was the first and only female shipyard welder in Bellingham, Washington, north of Seattle. In the eighties, Hadiyah returned to the East Coast to earn her MSW at Rutgers University. In 2003, she completed the certificate program in Memoir Writing through the University of Washington Extension. She is an active member of Seattle’s thriving community of writers. Hadiyah’s poems and essay have been published in The Journey of Healing: Wisdom from Survivors of Sexual Abuse, a Literary Anthology; Shine the Light: Sexual Abuse and Healing in the Jewish Community by Rachel Lev and Escaping the Yellow Wallpaper by Elayne Clift. Today Hadiyah lives in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood close to her son, Washington State 36th District Legislator Reuven Carlyle, his wife Dr. Wendy Carlyle and their four children. Activist, hiker, devoted grandmother, Hadiyah delights in the wild beauty of the Northwest while remaining connected to her gritty urban East Coast roots. Though welding is no longer a part of her life, she continues to carry the torch for the empowerment of the oppressed.