IN THE LUCKY SPACES–a nurse’s memoir was started as a way to close up a long and, honestly, tough career. To set it to rest, so to speak. It turned into so much more as I began to write and thought of for whom I was writing it. My children, of course, came to mind. What had I been up to when I was absent off to work? What was I thinking about then? But mainly it was for my mother who’s frugality and savings enabled me to go to nursing school. (see the dedication)

What I discovered as I wrote was a message way beyond a nursing practice. A sort of philosophy developed over time out of the chaos and stories of that career, unique to me. I’m glad so many of my fellow nurses, family members and literary students have picked up on it, and found a value in it for themselves. Way beyond my intention.

My grandchildren are very young right now, and I not so much. Another reason to write a memoir is for those who will sometime, way after I’ve stepped away, wonder about who that lady (the old and gray one they vaguely remember) was. I was close to my grandmothers for many years that I won’t have with mine and I know how I wish now that I would have questioned them about what they thought and felt about things. I did not, and now cannot. So, for Vivian, Flynn and Hazel I hope your parents will keep the book and share it with you at the right time. At least a short immortality would be nice.

Please go to amazon.com and put in the title or my name and read some of the lovely words others have written about the book. I save them all in my heart.