In Memory Of
Her Fake Boyfriend became the first time I named a heroine after someone I knew IRL.
Because my bestie Michelle was very little like the one in Her Fake Boyfriend, let me tell you a little bit about her and why I chose to honor her.
I first met Michelle at a neighborhood park when we were both young mothers. It was the 90s, days before cell phones and social media, and we were both hanging out with our toddler boys.
They were four months apart and she and I were each pregnant with our second child and both due in December! Later that week, we met at a local Bradley childbirthing class. Really! It was like kismet.
Michelle was a leader in a local La Leche League group and she invited me along to a meeting. A lifelong friendship was born as our boys became friends and we both gave birth to baby girls about a week apart.
The kismet continued!
It seemed like Michelle was my "sister from another mister." Then we moved when our daughters were six months old.
But don't worry, we didn't move far! Yes, our kids were not going to be going to the same schools growing up but we were one town over in the Bay Area. Just a short thirty minute drive.
Michelle visited us, and we visited them. Park days, beach days, camping trips as a family. We let the husbands come along. LOL. We were never going to lose touch.
Then Michelle became ill with severe anemia and stomach issues.
She'd been diagnosed with IBS, a very common chronic illness. But she got worse and was eventually diagnosed with colon cancer, late stage. It had metastasized to her liver. She had months to live.
Four months later she was put to rest on a gorgeous June day. She left behind her three children 15, 12, and 9, a devoted husband, an older brother, both parents, and countless friends.
She was 41.
If you've stayed with me so far, thank you. It's a sad story, I know, and not the kind I write. I love happy endings and a world in which tragedy rarely leaves its mark. That's why I memorialized Michelle in this very lighthearted, funny book, and gave her a different kind of life.
And a happy ending...
Because my bestie Michelle was very little like the one in Her Fake Boyfriend, let me tell you a little bit about her and why I chose to honor her.
I first met Michelle at a neighborhood park when we were both young mothers. It was the 90s, days before cell phones and social media, and we were both hanging out with our toddler boys.
They were four months apart and she and I were each pregnant with our second child and both due in December! Later that week, we met at a local Bradley childbirthing class. Really! It was like kismet.
Michelle was a leader in a local La Leche League group and she invited me along to a meeting. A lifelong friendship was born as our boys became friends and we both gave birth to baby girls about a week apart.
The kismet continued!
It seemed like Michelle was my "sister from another mister." Then we moved when our daughters were six months old.
But don't worry, we didn't move far! Yes, our kids were not going to be going to the same schools growing up but we were one town over in the Bay Area. Just a short thirty minute drive.
Michelle visited us, and we visited them. Park days, beach days, camping trips as a family. We let the husbands come along. LOL. We were never going to lose touch.
Then Michelle became ill with severe anemia and stomach issues.
She'd been diagnosed with IBS, a very common chronic illness. But she got worse and was eventually diagnosed with colon cancer, late stage. It had metastasized to her liver. She had months to live.
Four months later she was put to rest on a gorgeous June day. She left behind her three children 15, 12, and 9, a devoted husband, an older brother, both parents, and countless friends.
She was 41.
If you've stayed with me so far, thank you. It's a sad story, I know, and not the kind I write. I love happy endings and a world in which tragedy rarely leaves its mark. That's why I memorialized Michelle in this very lighthearted, funny book, and gave her a different kind of life.
And a happy ending...
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