a summer highlight was seeing cousin Diane Gates at my husband's family picnic on Belle Isle, and hearing her say how much she enjoyed my book.

Thom Lynch is the nicest guy and a funny, endearing writer. It's my privilege, really

My book, Mother of Orphans: The True and Curious Story of Irish Alice, A Colored Man's Widow, finds these two old women much younger and very much at odds over Polly, who in this photo and in life was stuck in the middle of two worlds.