After yet a few more fun book launching events–a read at the Palos Heights Library and a book table at a conference sponsored by the Park Forest Nurses Club, I took a break with my husband for a road trip west. The fall color changes were almost complete, but the rolling hills of newly harvested corn glistened in the sunlight, providing a restful diversion to urban busyness.

I even found an apple tree.

And squeezed in one book event at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. What a delight to finally see that campus. At Trinity Christian College, we used to get transfers from Dordt to our nursing program. Those students were always “stellar.” As were the attentive nursing students in that audience.

Plus, there was a surprise. Before I started, I perused the lecture hall audience. I saw only one man. An older man. I couldn’t fathom that he’d be a nursing student, so I asked. The man grinned and said, “I used to go to grade school with you.” I immediately “found” his eighth grade face, smiling, as my dad and I, a seventh grader, would pick him up for our carpool to Lafayette (IN) Christian School, 57 years ago!

I did not anticipate that the publication of Caring Lessons would bring old friends like this back into my life. And two days later, I met two former Dordt transfer students at an informal gathering. And four days later, a nurses’ training classmate from the early 60s, after hearing I was in the area, drove an hour to meet for coffee.

So blessings abound!

And apples eventually fall to the ground…and I, wanting to enjoy the sun, fall crisp air, and clear blue sky before heading back to the city, bend over (and over) and gather them up. For fun!