I was invited to a Christmas gathering this week. The party was supposed to celebrate friendships and the Christmas season. What I got instead was an unexpected Christmas blessing.
My friends Jan and Nancye had been talking about all my accomplishments before I arrived and both could not really explain everything I do on a professional level. I’ve turned into a complicated girl over the years because I’m not just involved in one thing.
In talking to Jo, the first lady I was introduced to, as soon as I mentioned the Hunt Book everything changed. She reached and grabbed my hand, her eyes lit up and said, “You’re the girl who has written the Hunt book?” Talk about it being a small world. A complete stranger whom I never met knew about me and my work on the Hunt story.
I was not expecting to talk about the Hunt book in any form at this party. Getting the reaction I did from so many of the ladies at this gathering was miraculous. Seeing the effect on their faces while I was talking about the Hunt story made me realize and cemented in my heart that I have done a good thing with telling the Hunt Story… I just have forgotten that aspect of all my hard work into the research, writing, and editing because of recent life events.
It is a story that needed to be written and unquestionably shared with the public. I have done my best as a scholar to write this tragic story with integrity. It was not an easy job to write given the complicated travesty of justice in these two murders.
The party was undeniably a blessing. I had already grown tired of waiting for one University Press to give me any response to my proposal – either negative or positive or just a professional response that the proposal was received. Now I move forth to finding a publisher truly interested in “Fatal Bullets and the Search for Justice.”
I’m thankful the word is small and grateful for friendships! Most of all I’m thankful for unexpected blessings.
Photograph – © Christena Stephens Photography
Forgotten Winds 