I’m back from a trip to the Pacific Northwest where I visited with family and celebrated my niece’s wedding! Here I am on the 4th of July with both of my kids. It’s seldom that we all three get to be together in the same place, at the same time. I guess that’s why we are smiling so much!
When I started writing my first book, My Last Best Friend, my daughter was only 9 years old. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed since she was a shy fourth grader, scared and worried about starting a new school year with her first “boy teacher” (as she referred to him). Mr. Eisenhuth turned out to be one of her all time favorite teachers, but the first paragraph of My Last Best Friend was certainly inspired by my daughter’s uncertain feelings leading up to her first day of fourth grade: “I’m Ida May, and there’s one thing I know. Fourth grade isn’t fourth at all. Fourth means you’ve done something at least three times before. But fourth grade is nothing like third grade. Or second grade. Or first grade.”
Now my daughter is studying to be a nurse. Soon she will be starting her 18th year of school! And in the time she grew from a shy fourth grader to a confident nursing student, I have written 14 books! That’s something else to smile about! 🙂
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