Nifty Nancy’s Surprise Question #WednesdayWords #WeeklySmile #Inspiration

One thing that always makes me smile is sharing memories of younger years. This is something I encouraged nursing home residents to do when I was  a registered music therapist. Now, I enjoy participating in such discussions through the ACB Community Calls, which I mentioned here last week.

On Friday, I attended a program called Nancy’s Nook. The facilitator, who calls herself Nifty Nancy, asked us to think of a surprising moment in our lives.

In January of 2005, I’d been carrying on a long-distance relationship with my late husband Bill. He was living in Fowler, Colorado, and I here in Sheridan, Wyoming. We met in 2003 through Newsreel, an audio magazine for the blind and visually impaired and had been corresponding by phone and email regularly. Twice in those two years, my father and I had stopped in Fowler, Colorado, to see Bill on our way to visit relatives in New Mexico.

On a Saturday night in January of 2005, I opened, for the first time, a Braille letter from Bill and couldn’t believe what I was reading. It said something like this. “Dear Abbie, I’m writing to ask you to consider giving me your hand in marriage.”

All this time, I thought he just wanted to be friends. Months later, I learned that he’d been giving me subtle hints, which I hadn’t registered, the most crucial one being at Christmas when Dad and I were visiting him and he suggested we kiss under the mistletoe. He apparently wasn’t joking.

Long story short, after a couple of months, I agreed to marry him. The selling point was that he wanted to move here. He was tired of living in Fowler, where there wasn’t much to do. You can read our story in My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds.

What made you smile this week? You can tell me in the comment field below or click here to participate in this week’s feature. Alternatively, if you can think of a surprising moment in your life, please feel free to share it below.

Speaking of shocking surprises, in my latest book, Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me, sixteen-year-old Natalie learns a surprising, shocking secret from her grandmother. Want to know what that is? Read the book.

 

New! Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me

Copyright 2021 by Abbie Johnson Taylor.

Independently published with the help of DLD Books.

Sixteen-year-old Natalie’s grandmother, suffering from dementia and confined to a wheelchair, lives in a nursing home and rarely recognizes Natalie. But one Halloween night, she tells her a shocking secret that only she and Natalie’s mother know. Natalie is the product of a one-night stand between her mother, who is a college English teacher, and another professor.

After some research, Natalie learns that people with dementia often have vivid memories of past events. Still not wanting to believe what her grandmother has told her, she finds her biological father online. The resemblance between them is undeniable. Not knowing what else to do, she shows his photo and website to her parents.

Natalie realizes she has some growing up to do. Scared and confused, she reaches out to her biological father, and they start corresponding.

Her younger sister, Sarah, senses their parents’ marital difficulties. At Thanksgiving, when she has an opportunity to see Santa Claus, she asks him to bring them together again. Can the jolly old elf grant her request?

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