She was due on Valentine’s Day, but we didn’t escape hearts and flowers and chocolate. Who would want to? But we get a lot because we have a birthday every week through to March first. My grandson escaped being a Leap Year Baby, which was a good thing.

I thinkI I’ve done with family obstacles now so I’ll get back to No Two Alike. That’s the name of the book I wrote for the United Church to go with their television special.

It took a long time to settle on the cast of characters: two people from each province for a total of 20 for me to talk to and write about. Had I ever done anything like that? No. Did I know how to do that? No.

Learn by doing.

But we had a larger concern, one that worried the Committee more than it did me.

As I told you, I was a widow, with four young children. Not that young; the girls were away at university, which wasn’t great because they could have helped if they were around. I needed full-time. live-in help to be with the boys while I was away. I had to go to all ten provinces to interview my subjects. That would take time. And money. I would receive my travel and accommodation, of course, but I was responsible for child care, of course. I couldn’t afford it, and I didn’t have a relative or close friend to help me out. We had lived in Stratford only five years when Bill died (at age 45, with a heart that was too young to die). For some reason I wasn’t as worried as the Committee was. They were praying for me. Somehow I knew it was going to be all right.

I never put an ad in the paper. I just talked to the people I knew: neighbours, members of the church choir I sang in, people I swam with at the Y. That’s all.

And then one evening my phone rang and someone said, “I heard you need help while you’re away.”

The Committee was more surprised than I was.

I’m swimming in the afternoon now because the sun is shining on the pool and it’s such a pleasure to swim in the sunshine.

Until tomorrow. I’ll be back.