Mark Miller poses with his father, Joe. Joe passed away 10 months after the release of his second book, I Am Who I Am: A Life Well-Lived.--Photo courtesy Mark Miller
zmason@medicinehatnews.com
Local author Joe Miller passed away in July 2025, leaving behind a son and daughter, four grandchildren and a truly remarkable story of resilience and reinvention, which he chronicled in two books.
Who Am I: A Little Book of Hope, came out in 2021. It was the product of a decades-long effort, sparked by the encouragement and initiative of Miller’s wife Beryl, to put his life story to the page.
Born in India around 1935, Miller was the product of a brief affair between a teenage Indian girl and a European father who likely left India before ever knowing about his son. He was given up for adoption and ultimately taken in by a family who abused and neglected him.
At the age of six, after suffering a beating that left him unconscious, he ran away, beginning a five-year period in which the young boy travelled thousands of miles alone by foot and by train, begging for food and fending for himself. In the Second World War, he was taken in by a British serviceman named Nelson Taylor, who took him back to England after the war.
These events are chronicled in the first book. But Miller had more life story to tell, and in 2021, he began the process of writing a second book, I Am Who I Am: A Life Well-Lived.
Beryl began writing her future husband’s story as she learned it while they were dating in 1957. But after the 1959 birth of their children and subsequent move of the family of four from England to Medicine Hat in 1973, the book project fell into the background of a quiet routine in a busy, normal life.
It wasn’t until the two were well into retirement that the family began exploring ways to realize their dream of sharing Joe’s story. The process began in 2018. The first book charts Miller’s course through his marriage in 1959. The next recounts his second act as a father, family man and immigrant.
Miller bounced between jobs, sometimes holding as many as three jobs to keep his small family afloat. Coming to Canada to work at Western Co-op Fertilizers, he later did a stint in the oilfields, ran a photography business and did all number of odd jobs.
He was motivated by a philosophy that valued resilience and love above all else.
“Dad’s motto was, if you fall down, get back up. Keep on going,” said his son, Mark Miller, who was intimately involved in the assembly of the two books. “He fell down lots. But he always got back up.”
In an interview with CHAT News in 2021, Miller summarized his ideology of gratitude in his own words.
“I may not be rich. I may not be important. Except in love. I have lots of love around me.”
Mark says his father’s biographical project became a family endeavour, with the whole family pitching in for fact-checking, contextual interviews and encouragement.
It also allowed the rest of the Miller family to connect with their shared history, which had been shrouded in mystery before their father began excavating his past.
Now, Mark says he’d like to produce a documentary about his father’s story. He has lofty goals of someday taking the tale to the Toronto International Film Festival. He says he’s also spoken with the ghostwriter who helped his father write the books about producing a third, to continue carrying the history of his family forward.
Mark will give an author talk about the new book on Mar. 14 at the Medicine Hat Public Library.
Both books are available on Amazon.
