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Last night in Florence.

Tonight was wonderful.  We walked the streets of Florence and had a wonderful dinner.  Talking for hours, we finished the evening sitting in the roof garden at the top of our hotel.  Arden and I felt like we were a long way from home and then we saw a small bar called the “Burian Bar.”  We both grew up in Burien, WA, so it seemed funny that we had been here a week and hadn’t seen that business until the last night.  It was a sign to us that it was time to go home.

This has been a wonderful vacation, we had extended time to reconnect and relax as well as set down our responsibilities.  The problem now is that we need to pick those responsibilites up again when we return home.  At this minute the thought of that is daunting.

Oh we will be fine, as we always are, but it has seemed so delightfully normal to be strolling around in the evening passing other retired couples enjoying their time in Italy.  We have visited with strangers sitting near us in restaurants or on buses.

I am sharing these experiences to encourage other parents.  The times that Nick has been too ill to travel have been difficult for us and I have felt hope when I have read the stories of other people who were able to travel and see different parts of the world.

We wouldn’t want to always be on vacation, of course, and we are looking forward to returning to those things that are cherished and familiar: our family, our home, our friends.  At dinner tonight we talked about what we would want to share with those we love.

As I leave Florence, I am grateful for the time here.  The art I experienced was beyond description.  The opportunity to just be with Arden was priceless.  I will cherish these memories.

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One Comment

  1. I’m glad you’ve had this pause, this refresher. Much needed and energizing.

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Announcing that I have finished a book with the working title of “The Fairy Fort.” I am currently pitching it to publishers. Keep checking back to watch the progress of my newest novel.

Here is a quick glimpse of the story.

Sarah Doherty is an 18-year-old living in rural Ireland at the tail end of the Great War. Plagued by severe epilepsy, she is protected by her parents and lives a sheltered, secluded, lonely life. The Fae, local Irish fairies, interfere with her life. She falls forward a century in time through the local fairy fort of standing stones. She had a seizure in 1918 and woke up in 2020. The 21st century world includes life-saving prescriptions, physical comforts and the independence and freedom she seeks. The locals are welcoming and Andy Mclaughlin, a handsome young historian, is intriguing. She doesn’t want to return home.

Then a letter arrives from Boston divulging the story of Sarah and Andy’s lives that are deeply entwined in the previous century. They are not yet in love but as they seek to verify the letter through online resources, they feel a growing obligation to their unborn family and to each other. What would happen to their posterity living in Boston if they don’t return to 1918? Even if they do make it back, her parents can never know what happened to her or that would change everything.

This Young Adult time-travel romance explores the question: Do we have the freedom to make choices or is free will an elaborate illusion?

This is my third book. I love reading time travel romances. I am an advocate for epilepsy awareness because my 43-year-old son has intractable epilepsy. As a genealogist specializing in Irish research, I live part of the year in the village where the story is based. I wrote the book to help young adults understand that difficult situations can change your life. Sometimes miraculously.