Thoughts from my Bench

 Sometime in 2016 I received a copy of an essay from a friend that I had met a few years before while we were on vacation. Her husband had since died and she was in the process of writing her way out of grief. She journaled daily - writing her thoughts about being alone after 57 years of marriage. Her goal was to gather the essays and publish a book.

The essay that she sent to me ended with the phrase "...and my book of essays will be illustrated by my artist friend, Jo Merrill." This was her way of inviting me into this project.

So, for the past two years we have been working together. She would write an essay and send it to me. I would read and re-read looking for a phrase to illustrate. Sometimes a phrase would immediately jump out at me. More often, it took a little longer, but eventually I could grasp an idea and bring it to life.

Much of her journaling has been done while sitting on a bench in Central Park. The cover of the book was one of the first things I played with. I sent it to her. We each printed it out and have been staring at it ever since.

We had a total of 53 essays and illustrations by last spring. After we took a hard look, we decided to pare down to 35. We then arranged them by issues and subjects and divided the book into chapters. The summer was spent editing... a lengthy process!

I suggested that each essay be headed by the sketch and the phrase from the essay was placed beneath. Here are just a few of the sketches:

"Embrace Joy"

"Our years can be kind of like a good red wine aging in barrels"

"Not loneliness! It is the 'aloneness' "

"Grab hold of grateful"

There are a lot more images and many pages of thoughtful essays...

The exciting news is that... the book has now been published! See cover below...

You can find it on Amazon.com under "Thoughts from my Bench", Suzanne H. Baer or the illustrator...that's me!

Order a copy now - think holiday gifts!  Hope you enjoy it... let us know!