I am a mystic by nature. I believe in divine purposes that stretch beyond the formal life of a soul. Much like musicians, poets, and artists whose work reaches its epoch years after their death. Among them are the works of John Dennis Fitzgerald. Though his books were popular successes when he was alive, it would be in the decades after his death when a long ago-requested promise to his mother would be fulfilled.
The roads that wound, and people who played their part in fulfilling the promise are as unique as his characters themselves. When the request landed in my life, I didn’t want it.
The whispered offer came to me in 2000, as I sat in a dark movie theater watching the movie Finding Forrester. A nearly silent knowing that Finding Fitzgerald would be the name of my book. A book I hadn’t written a word for, nor done any serious research on.
Six months earlier, in the summer of 2000, I read John Dennis Fitzgerald’s Papa Married a Mormon for the first time. The previous twenty-four years were filled with repeat readings of John D’s. Great Brain series. On a hot August night, as I finished reading Papa Married a Mormon, another whisper and an aurora borealis sighting set me on a research project for answers to questions which would lead to a book I didn’t even imagine at that time I would be writing.
The internet and technology as we know it today, didn’t exist. My home was a bit ahead of the curve due to my husband’s employment. I initially intended to do a single day’s research, get my questions answered, and move on. Life didn’t work that way. I was the sixth soul (or souls depending on the group) to be nudged to find Fitzgerald. Come to find out I had a long way to go.*
*The broader details are my experiences can be found in the book Finding Fitzgerald.
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