Those of you who are following this blog know that my young adult/coming of age novel Wild Ones will be released soon (this week, I hope!) And as promised I’ll be providing tidbits about certain inspirational people and events, although nothing written was based on any one person, place or incident.

Quite a few years ago, when I was President of a local equestrian group, I was on my way to visit an author friend who had just purchased a horse. It was silly of me not to print out the address or directions as I knew the area and figured locating a boarding facility along that particular road would be easy. Wrong! The road was more than five miles long and every second property, it seemed, had a horse facility on it.

Finally, frustrated from driving back and forth, turning around in peoples’ driveways, I  stopped at one farm where I saw a woman my age out in the garden. Although she didn’t know the house I was looking for, she went in and got a phone book, and together we found the place. She gave me a glass of water and we chatted for a while about horses. I thought it was so kind of her to take the extra time for me and thanked her profusely. She was such a pleasant person and had the kind of thick wavy hair, rich and wheat-colored, that I gave Emily Thompson, the character in the book. But it was her mostly her calm demeanor that drew me to her and I knew instinctively that she’d be good with horses, traits I also gave Emily. I mentioned our riding club, which she’d heard about.

Several months later, she joined our group, and in fact, became our Vice-President (while I was President) and I got to know her a little better. I found out that she had, in fact, been a nun. She had left the convent to marry a local veterinarian with two young sons. Any more than that I didn’t know, nor am I the kind of person to ask. Suffice it to say that I was just glad to have her as a friend.

A few years later, shortly after I moved to Washington, I was devastated to learn that she had died, quite suddenly, of a brain aneurysm. It was a complete coincidence that we met, but I truly believe Karma threw us together. She’s inspired me in more ways than she could ever have imagined.