In Honor of Stacie Boren
I thought I had published this blog in January. I guess I only did the draft. I posted something similar on Facebook. I feel that it is important to publish it in her honor. Stacie Boren August 31, 1976 - January 7, 2021.
May 26, 2019, is the day that I met Stacie Boren. I was at a book signing in Freeport; she was standing in line to get her book signed. We kept looking at each other and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to know her. So I got up and walked back in the middle of the line where she was and before I got there she said “You don’t know me. I saw where you were going to be in Freeport and I had to come meet you.”
I asked her why and she said “It’s a funny thing, we’re not Facebook friends but somehow your book came across my page on Facebook. I looked at the title of your book and the cover and I said ‘I want to read that book.’” She continued, “I ordered it that day and it came in the next day. I read the whole book in one day. Then your book signing post came across my page by accident.”
I told her, “It wasn’t an accident but a direct message to her personally from God.”
She shook her head in agreement and we both started to cry. She told me my book “really touched her”.
I asked “In what way?”
She replied “Years ago I tried to write a book and it got so hard that I finally just threw the computer to the side and said ‘forget it’. After reading your book I knew I could finish mine and I just want you to know you gave me my voice back.”
I was stunned. She shared with me that she would be picking her book back up again to complete it. We cried that day together and we smiled and at her request, we made this picture.
Her comment about how my book touched her heart made my whole trip worthwhile.
Stacie said, “If my book will touch one person the way yours touched me, I will consider it a success”.
As an author, those were words that I needed to hear. My purpose was to tell my story in hopes that it would make a difference to someone that read it. Stacie confirmed that in the way I measure success, I had fulfilled my dream and made a difference.
Stacie was one of a kind. I wish we could have spent more time together that day, but she had to leave to get her children from school. But we still communicated and she became a friend and an encourager to my writing. We connected.
I’m so proud of her for finishing her book. People don’t always understand the courage it takes and the pain an author goes through to write a book that has some touch of reality to it.
Just as Stacie told me I made a difference in her life, she certainly made a difference in mine!
I’m sorry that she’s not with us any longer. Gone way too soon. May 26, 2019, is when I met her, a day she became a friend, and will remain a day I will never forget. Love to you Stacie and to your family you loved so much.
This is the review Stacie wrote for Broken Pieces before we met at the book signing.
I want to challenge and encourage you to tell your story in whatever form you are comfortable with. There is someone waiting and needing to hear it.
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