Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul (2 page)

Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul
has taken more than a year to write, compile and edit. It has been a true labor of love for all of us. One of the greatest joys in creating this book has been working with people who gave this project not just their time and attention, but their hearts and souls as well. We would like to thank the following people for their dedication and contributions, without which this book could not have been created:

Our families, who have given us love and support throughout this project, and have been chicken soup for
our
souls!

Dan Hawthorne, for always believing in us and in the importance of this project. Dan, thank you for helping us to keep our perspective and take ourselves lightly. We deeply appreciate your love and wonderful sense of humor!

Rusty Hoffman, for his unconditional love, his extraordinary support, his huge heart and his Internet expertise. Rusty, thank you for continually reminding us to enjoy the moment. You are a true saint!

Maureen H. Read, for reading and giving us feedback on hundreds of stories, and for always being there and cheering us on. We love you!

Louise and Marcus Shimoff, for their eternal support and love. We thank you for your constant willingness to research anything we needed, and for being one of our best sources of stories. We love you!

Elinor Hall, who assisted in every aspect of this project, from managing the
Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul
office to doing research and providing emotional support. No job was too big or too small, and we thank you for your love, your friendship and your bliss—we couldn’t have done it without you!

Ron Hall, for his unbounded consciousness, vision and love.

Carol Kline, for her great skill in reading and researching hundreds of stories, and for interviewing several women and writing their important stories for inclusion in the book. Carol, we are so grateful for your constant love and friendship.

Joanna Cox, for countless hours spent typing the preliminary manuscript and for always being there for us with infinite patience. We loved your steadying influence, and we loved working with you!

Nancy Berg and Eileen Lawrence, for their first-class job of editing numerous stories for us. We deeply appreciate the way you were able to capture the essence of
Chicken Soup for the Soul
in the stories you worked on.

Dan Clark, for sharing many of his stories and for working long and late hours editing stories to enable us to meet our deadlines.

Suzanne Lawlor, for her research and her generous heart. K. Bernard, Bobby Roth, Susan Shatkin, Emily Sledge and Mary Zeilbeck for their editing assistance.

Peter Vegso and Gary Seidler at Health Communications, Inc., for believing in this book from the moment it was proposed, and for getting it into the hands of millions of readers. Thank you, Peter and Gary!

Christine Belleris, Matthew Diener and Mark Colucci, our editors at Health Communications, Inc., for their generous efforts in bringing this book to its high state of excellence.

Kim Weiss and Arielle Ford for their brilliant public relations efforts.

Patty Aubery and Nancy Mitchell, coauthors of
Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul,
who guided us through the process of creating this book and never wavered in their encouragement and inspiration. Patty, thank you for always being there with answers and understanding. Nancy, thank you for an out standing job obtaining the permissions for the stories in this book.

Heather McNamara, for editing and preparing the final manuscript with such ease, talent and clarity. We deeply appreciate your patience and your valuable suggestions. You are a joy to work with!

Veronica Valenzuela and Julie Knapp, for helping in Jack’s office to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Rosalie Miller (Auntie Ro), who nourished us with her food and her love in the final weeks of preparing the manuscript.

Barry Spilchuk, for sharing with us stories, cartoons, quotes—and cookies when needed. Barry, we greatly appreciate your encouragement and your sense of humor!

Mark Tucker, for telling his audiences across the country about this book. His efforts resulted in hundreds of stories being contributed.

Recie Mobley, Diane Montgomery and Jenny Bryson, for putting out a call for stories to the professional speakers in their companies.

Mavis Cordero and Women Inc., for supporting our project and inviting us to participate in their New York conference for women, “Uncommon Women on Common Ground.”

Dan Fields, Elaine Glusac, Joann Landreth and Sheryl Vestal, for featuring
Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul
in their publications.

Bonnie Bartlett and Elizabeth Caulder, for their enthusiastic support, and for spreading the word about our call for stories.

Aliza Sherman of Cybergirl Internet Media, for designing our Web page and getting us onto the Internet.

The following people, who completed the monumental task of reading the preliminary manuscript of the book, helped us make the final selections and made invaluable comments on how to improve the book: Patty Aubery, Kim Banks, Christine Belleris, Pamela Bice, Laura Chitty, Lane Cole, Debbie Davis, Linda Lowe DeGraaff, Pam Finger, Elinor Hall, Jean Hammond, Stephany Harward, Amy Hawthorne, Rachel Jorgensen, Kimberly Kirberger, Robin Kotok, Nancy Leahy, Jeanette Lisefski, Priscilla Lynch, Teresa Lynch, Barbara McLoughlin, Karen McLoughlin, Heather McNamara, Barbara McQuaide, Jackie Miller, Nancy Mitchell, Cindy Palajac, Debra Halperin Poneman, Maureen H. Read, Wendy Read, Carol Richter, Loren Rose, Marjorie E. Rose, Heather Sanders, Wendy Sheets, Louise and Marcus Shimoff, Carolyn Strickland, Paula Thomas, Debra Way and Kim Wiele. We truly thank you for your heroic contribution!

Craig Herndon, for his help in typing the manuscript and for managing all our data entry. Craig’s work was instrumental in providing us with information from our manuscript readers to help us make our final selection of 101 stories.

Fairfield Printing, especially Stephany Harward and Deborah Roberts, for their enthusiastic support of the book and their willingness to put
Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul
ahead of almost any printing project at any time.

Jim Rubis and the Fairfield Public Library, and Tony Kainauskas and 21st Century Bookstore, for their outstanding research assistance.

Rick and Irene Archer, for their artistic abilities and for their design of beautiful promotional materials.

Felicity and George Foster, for their talented design and color work.

Jerry Teplitz, for working with us on our cover design.

Terry Johnson, Bill Levacy and Blaine Watson, for their astute guidance on aspects of this project.

Georgia Noble, for opening her home to us in the final days of the project, and for sharing her light and love of beauty.

M., for the gifts of wisdom and knowledge.

The following people, who contributed through their emotional support and encouragement throughout the project: Amsheva Miller, Robert Kenyon, Lynn Robertson, Loren and Cliff Rose, Janet Jenkins, David and Sofia Deida and our support groups.

Many of the contributors to previous
Chicken Soup for the Soul
books, for their love of this project and their continued willingness to share their stories.

We also wish to acknowledge the hundreds of people who sent us stories, poems and quotes for possible inclusion in
Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul.
While we were not able to use everything that was sent in, we were deeply touched by your heartfelt intention to share your selves and your stories with us and our readers. Thank you!

Because of the enormity of this project, we may have left out the names of some people who helped us along the way. If so, we are sorry—please know that we really do appreciate all of you.

We are truly grateful for the many hands and hearts that made this book possible. We love you all!

Share with Us

We would love to hear your reactions to the stories in this book. Please let us know what your favorite stories were and how they affected you.

We also invite you to send us stories you would like to see published in future editions of
Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul.
You can send us either stories you have written or stories written by others that you have liked.

Send your submissions to:

Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul
P.O. Box 1959, Dept. W52
Fairfield, IA 52556
phone: 800-211-5948
fax: 515-472-7288
e-mail:
[email protected]
Web sites:
www.chickensoup.com
www.clubchickensoup.com

We hope you enjoy reading this book as much as we enjoyed compiling, editing and writing it.

Introduction

This book has been a gift to us. From the moment it was conceived, we have felt the love, joy and indomitable spirit of women every step of the way. Our hope is that this book will be a gift to you as well.

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