This week I had the most lovely surprise pop up in my email inbox!
I can not speak for other authors (yes I just used the A word about myself – only as part of a group, though!), but, for me, sharing Who Stole Grandma? with others has been an abundant joy. I read the reviews, even though I keep hearing that one shouldn’t. I embrace the messages that people send, wallow in them, cherish them, share them with HMW and allow them to waft me around. But nothing quite prepared me for this email.
It was from Moosh’s oldest surviving friend, Elisabeth.
Elisabeth and Moosh became friends in Iran, when I was just a boy. They were part of the expat community into which Aly and I would fly for our school holidays. Elisabeth’s family had welcomed and befriended our family when we arrived.
Elisabeth, who I last saw over 40 years ago, had written to say that she had read WSG and to share memories that reading it had provoked, of wild flower holidays to Turkey and Corsica, that she and Moosh had gone on together, and of family camping adventures next to waterfalls in Iran, and most crucially to send love to Aly.
More than any other of my lovely WSG experiences, Elisabeth’s message brought Moosh back to me. It was almost as if Elisabeth’s compliment was coming out of Moosh’s mouth. So, now, I’m floating.
Then, as if that loveliness was not enough, as I was writing this, HMW chirped, “Aw, isn’t that lovely?”
She wasn’t doing her normal trick of reading over my shoulder as I write, but was showing me a review that she thought I’d already seen. I hadn’t seen it, because I’d completely missed it! For me it is an especially important review because it was written by someone who works for Parkinson’s UK.
Someone hold my feet, because I might just float away 💗
Mark Lanyon Storyteller 