Swannee Rivers

You ever have an AHA moment? I had one I hadn't thought about. A parallel between my long-time friend (since high school,) and my new children's book (Fuzzy Ears and the Grocery Store Adventure.)

 My friend detested her middle name, Rose, ever since we first met. She didn't want anyone to know that was her middle name, but shared it with me one day. From the moment I heard it, I loved it and started calling her by that instead of her first name because I thought it was fitting of the beautiful spirit she was and represented to the world. I became the only person that she allowed to call her Rose through these many years. Whether it was a letter, email, phone call...I always said "hi Rose." She knew it was me. Tonight, after having a conversation she informed me that after all of these years (and it has been many,) she has come to appreciate the name and now actually likes it. It made my evening. I knew it was beautiful all along, I just had to wait for her to catch up. Beautiful Rose.