INTRODUCE YOURSELF GBE Week 7

Hi, I'm Cherie.  I've been blogging since MySpace in 200-- I don't remember because it was that long ago.  I have always been a writer, being blessed to be born into an Irish family who loved to sit around the table  telling stories.  When I close my eyes I can still hear my grandfather's brogue as he made me my first cup of tea with lots of milk and sugar and helped me feel part of all the stories swirling around us.  We lost him when I was 11, and he was approaching his 100th year.  I still make my tea the very same way he taught me when I was 4 or 5.  

He was a very kind man and I grew up getting to know him through my aunts and my Mom's memories of how, when the depression hit and they were only allowed to buy so much food, my grandfather would spend it all buying food for the nuns and he would put it in a cloth bag and bring my Mom with him to hang it on the door, ring the bell, and leave.  They shared because someone else was in need and made due with what they had.  

We would visit him on Sunday afternoon - all of the kids playing outside in the good weather and bad.  At some point, my grandfather would come walking up the street with the newspaper under his arm, and his pockets full of candy or some pennies or a nickel for us.  He would lean in and always say the same thing as he pressed it into my palm and closed my fingers around it, "Don't tell your mother".   Though I did as an adult eventually tell her and it made her smile because she never knew.  

I am an animal advocate.  I have fostered a few dogs and many cats.  I currently have 11 foster cats in my house.  One is adopted, several others have applications and almost all but 2 have interest.  I also work for a dog rescue.  

As of this past May, I am a beekeeper.  It is such an amazing thing learning about them and helping them thrive, and it's good for the earth to make a home for pollinators.  

I am writing a book, so aspiring author is another part of me.  I have had this book in my head for a long while as it is a story that needs to be told.  Carving out time this summer has been challenging, but as Autumn comes on, I have returned to at least 30 minutes writing every day.  It's a true story I am writing as fiction which is... strange but the suggestion of the author that I am taking a writing class with so I am following that expertise.  The most extraordinary thing happened the other day.  I found her through a Facebook post and she lives in New Zealand.   No memory when I read her name.  About 5 weeks later, I am scrolling through my memories on Facebook and see a meme that was originally posted by her in 2014!!!  I sent it to her to see if it was her or just someone with a similar name and she said it was her.  The world is so much smaller than we think.  Had I engaged with her then, my book may have been written many times over by now so I believe that now is the time.  We never know how many more days we have.  I would like to have a rough draft by April when we are going on a trip with friends that this book involves.  

I have some blog posts still up on blogger.com and for whatever reason, I remembered the password from when I used to blog with GBE and Elizabeth Grace.  Thank you, Beth!  Your stories made me want to write my own again.