The original Sweet Magnolias -- Maddie, Helen and Dana Sue -- were childhood friends who stuck by each other through thick and thin, but over the course of the series, just like all of us in real life, they've welcomed newcomers to the fold. They've even become multi-generational as their daughters and even a few local seniors have been included in their famed margarita nights.
For someone like me, who grew up in a suburb of Washington, DC where military families and, therefore, friends came and went, friendships have always been vitally important in my life. I hang onto the people I love for dear life, keeping in touch despite time and distance.
Lately, though, I've been through a period when the loss of dear friends has been more permanent. I have to say it's come as a disconcerting shock to realize that I'm now at an age when I'm more likely to lose someone to death than a cross-country move.
This is a transition we all must face eventually. As a minister friend points out to me, the cycle of life is inevitable. That doesn't mean we have to like it, but we do have to learn to deal with the grief and move on. And it's at times like these that the friends left behind mean more than ever. They provide support and comfort and much-needed laughter amid the tears.
Over the years I've been around many people who've lived well into their 80s and 90s. One thing they've all agreed on is that outliving their contemporaries is tough. From them, I've learned to make a decided effort to include a lot of younger people in my circle of friends, just as the Sweet Magnolias have done in these books. It's something you might want to consider as well.
Because as our lives inevitably change, as people come and go whatever the reason, friendships matter more than ever. I hope your circle of friends is large, that it includes young and old, and that you remember each and every day how those you love enrich your life. In other words, I wish you your own group of Sweet Magnolias!
Biography: With two other careers to her credit before becoming a novelist and four states in which she's lived for extended periods of time, Sherryl Woods has collected friends and memories, along with way too much unnecessary junk.
"The friends are the only things I've brought with me through the years that really matter," she says. "I could probably live without one more chintz teacup, another tin-litho sandpail or another snowglobe, but I need those friends."
Author of more than 100 romance and mystery novels, Sherryl Woods grew up in Virginia. Over the years she had lived in Ohio and Florida, as well as California. Currently she divides her time between Key Biscayne, Florida and Colonial Beach, Virginia, the small, river-front town where she spent her childhood summers.
A graduate of Ohio State University School of Journalism, Sherryl spent more than ten years as a journalist, most of them as a television critic for newspapers in Ohio and Florida. For several years she also coordinated a motivational program for the more than 8,000 employees at the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Medical Center.
Her first book, RESTORING LOVE, was published in 1982 by Dell Candlelight Ecstasy under the pseudonym of Suzanne Sherrill. Her second book, SAND CASTLES, under the pseudonym of Alexandra Kirk, was published later that same year by Bantam. She began using her own name when she moved to the Second Chance at Love line at Berkley Publishing. In 1986, she began writing full-time and also began her long career at Silhouette Books with the Desire title NOT AT EIGHT, DARLING, set in the world of television which she covered for so many years.
In addition to her more than 75 romances for Silhouette Desire and Special Edition, she has written thirteen mysteries — nine in the Amanda Roberts series and four in the Molly DeWitt series.
When she's not writing or reading, Sherryl loves to garden, though she's not at her best on a riding lawn mower. She also loves tennis, theater, and ballet, even though her top spin has long since vanished, she's never set foot on a stage, and she's way too uncoordinated to dance. She also loves baseball and claims anyone who's ever seen Kevin Costner in "Bull Durham" can understand why.
copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2012
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