Note 1. “I really read it, Mommy!”

A question that might be rolling around in your head as you have landed on this section of one Chronicles tab is what is this website really about and who are these two women? A valid question in a world where we have multiple places to spend our time, but a limited amount of time to spend.

Allow me to briefly introduce us. To start with, we are a mother and a daughter. And to make that even more interesting, we are a mother and daughter who enjoy spending time together.  Even though there have been 800 miles between us nearly everyday for the last 20 years, we talk nearly every day. Thank God that long distance calls are no longer a separate bill we get on our telephones.  And when we are together, we laugh, we muse, we travel, we share stories of children and friends.  We’ve solved the world’s problems together, at least those in our personal worlds. We’ve walked sunrises together and shared bottles of wine (not at the same time).  And we get together up close and personal, as often as is financially possible.

And we cry together, which is the primary reason for the creation of this website. In July of 2023, we lost one of the most significant people in our family, my husband.

I married Greg when Brittany and her younger siblings were teenagers, but it didn’t take long for his “treat them like cats and let them come to me” philosophy to successfully melt their hearts and turn them into children who fell in love with him as much as their mother had. He became their dad in all the important ways that children need and 9,598 days later, our laughter and joy changed to crying and mourning and overwhelming feelings of loss.

One of the most endearing things about Greg was his incessant curiosity about people and places and the sands of time.  To quell this thirst, he became an avid reader at a very young age and when he and Brittany met for the first time, this became an automatic connection for she too felt happiest when her head was buried in a book and a world that she was curious about. 

When Brittany was a little girl, I worked at an educational toy store and her “what did you bring me today Mommy” moment always meant a new book.  She devoured books so quickly that I often accused her of not really reading them, but she always passed the comprehension and vocabulary test I gave her.  This was also my husband. When we met, his regular diet was a couple of books a week even while working full time at his job as an entertainment attorney at a music company.

Over the years, Greg and Brittany shared books and stories and made book recommendations to each other like they were sharing a box of yummy, salted caramel chocolates. No one could get between them when they were talking literature (or the law – Brittany went on to follow in his footsteps and graduated from law school in 2020). And just like most things in life that you love, these two did everything they could to influence me and all the grandkids that were to come to climb into the books that they loved.

So, what does all of that have to do with this website?  Greg left the library that he curated over his lifetime to Brittany in his will.  This is not just any library, it takes up the entire third floor of our house and seeps into nearly every corner, shelf, and tabletop in the rest of our house.  Some people decorate with books, but books were a delicious meal of protein and vegetables to Greg and Brittany. They have never been shy about proclaiming to others that they are malnourished without a steady diet of books. And so, this belief has birthed this website and creates a way that Brittany can honor her dad and share this amazing library with others, encouraging others to read the way he did.

There are some other boring details about this mother/daughter team that you might be interested in knowing.

My daughter Brittany is a pretty amazing woman in the eyes of many beyond her mother’s eyes.  First of all, she is a mother – the mother of two sets of twins who as I mentioned earlier, decided when the youngest set were entering middle school that she needed another challenge and so she enrolled in law school. I am also the mother of twins – but only one set, Brittany’s younger siblings who are two years younger.  Since birth, Brittany has always been intent on outdoing me in everything she can, and I encourage it!

Brittany is married to her Greg who is named Ryan, and she is as crazy about her daily work outs as she is about reading. She’s one of those people who wakes up on the wrong side of the bed because she isn’t in Italy but her adorable grief dog, Murphy, changes her mood pretty quickly. But the consistent thing about her is that ever since she was a little girl, passion has poured out of her pores for whatever it is that’s in front of her and as her mom, this has filled up my “joy bucket” for years. I’m grateful that she’s sharing it now with you.

As for me, I began my adult career as a teacher in Saudi Arabia which provided a very quick pathway to a travel addiction that I continue to “suffer” from.  As I am now near the end of my everyday working career, I have ended up in the C-Suite at one of the country’s largest Boys & Girls Clubs but my career has had some color over the years.  I’ve been a car hop, a director of day care, marketing, early childhood publications - all of this before becoming a counselor working with children and families in Milwaukee. But the common theme of everything I’ve done (with the exception of the car hop gig!) has been focused on helping others.

And now life has presented me with a new chapter that I didn’t ask for.  As I’m still learning how to be in this dreaded widow club that no one wants to be a part of, I’m finding myself in the position of helping others again.  In this Chronicles tab, I’ll be sharing some of my grief journey with the hope that it helps someone else along the way because one glaring lesson I’ve learned is that is that this is a very “alone” path that really doesn’t offer as many understanding and helping hands as are needed.

So, welcome to this adventure of creating a community that can share books, unique book “stuff,” as well as our passions and writings.  I hope you will come along and grow your curiosity and your own passions in life because as a very courageous blind woman once said, “life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”