Katherine Nichols Author

Having The Sometime Sister published is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. When people outside my writing group, close friends, and family bought my book and liked it, I did a happy dance and didn’t care who was watching.

I couldn’t imagine anything better.

Until I heard what a group of lovely ladies had done for Jan, one of my dearest friends, a woman I never expected would read my novel.

Not that Jan isn’t a book lover. A math whiz and bridge expert, she was an avid reader. She loved to travel and never met a stranger. A stroke changed all that. Doctors predicted she would never speak again. But my friend wasn’t having it. Despite the occasional confused pronoun or difficulty with names, she made a miraculous recovery. Still brilliant, she knows what she’s lost but doesn’t let it stop her.

With encouragement from our mutual friend Peggy, Jan resumed trips with her girls, women who have been traveling together for over twenty years. Despite her difficulties with the written word, Jan bought my book and asked if I would read it to her.

My author friends will understand what a thrill that request was. Of course, I said yes, but our schedules made it hard to set up a time.

Here’s where the lovely ladies come in. On their semi-annual trip to the beach, the girls took turns reading The Sometime Sister to each other, stopping to discuss after each chapter. When Peggy told me about their read-alouds, I felt so honored.

Like my heroine Grace, I experienced the power of family because that’s what these women are to each other—sisters. They understand it’s not like sometimes you’re sisters, and sometimes you’re not. They offer each other unconditional love and lasting hope.

And that is better than anything I could have imagined.