What do you get when you combine two social workers who just happen to be mother and daughter?

It’s always been a dream of mine to write a book with my daughter. For four years, we threw around ideas, jotted notes, and did a little research. It occurred to me as I listened to my little girl (who was a grown-up person living in a grown-up world and working at a grown-up job), she was ready. She graduated from University of Denver with her MSW in 2020, and has worked with children in the school setting ever since. Combining my expertise with grief and her expertise with children, we set out to work on our first writing project together.

Don’t get me wrong – writing is not a quick and easy project. The ideas we had were a result of 4 years of brainstorming, researching, and even giving those ideas a little time on the shelf before they melded.

So, as luck would have it, timing worked out this summer, and I traveled back to Denver with Hope to collaborate and finally bring these ideas to fruition.

In the car, we discussed our game plan.

“Four hours,” Hope stated.

“What’s four hours?” I asked.

“Four hours is the maximum time I am writing in any given day. The rest of the time we are going to rest and enjoy,” she elaborated.

In the passenger seat of her car, my mind started to spin. Was she serious? Leftover from my parenting small children days, my current writing ritual is to go away to the cabin for 5-7 days at a time and crank on my writing, taking my notes and thoughts to the silence where I connect ideas, outline, combine, experiment, doodle, read, watch nature, drink coffee, and breathe fresh air – all of which eventually meld into a manuscript. It’s a slightly different process each time, but it all happens with hyperfocus and me clearing my schedule. Just me, a hotspot internet connection, and some coffee. My husband is a saintly guy who takes care of everything while I’m away (thanks, Honey).

“I know how you work, Mom, and I can’t and won’t write the way you do. It’s too much. I will give you four solid hours a day, and we will get it done.”

Well, when your kid is 27 and she knows herself well, what could I say? I didn’t argue and hoped for the best.

We spent the week in the mountains of Colorado, on the property that will soon hold our home, with our morning lattes, picnic lunches, sunscreen, laptops and Google Drive.

Wearing sweatshirts and fleece in the cool July mornings, we started to edit our first scraps of a story. She focused on my wordiness, rewriting some of the sentences to the level of the child. She filled in ideas and brought the ideas full circle. She clarified the messaging and made notes about future illustrations. She took breaks and came back to her work refreshed. We collaborated on what should happen in the story – where were the teachable moments, what actions were important to include.

In the afternoons, we visited the winery and local coffeehouse, ate filled specialty croissants at the Black Box Bakery in Edgewater Public Market (must try if you are in Denver), driving up Mount Blue Sky, and caught up with life’s demands so we wouldn’t feel any overwhelm when we were focusing on the manuscript in our time blocks. We spent evenings making pasta with her boyfriend, watching Netflix, and walking the dog.

Witnessing my daughter live into her wisdom is a memory I truly with treasure for the rest of my life. I am so excited to release this book to the world so you, too, can experience the synergy that went into the writing of Lightning Bugs and Yaya’s Hugs AND Lighting the Path.

Lightning Bugs and Yaya’s Hugs is a 2-in-1 product. What does that mean? One side will be the children’s story, titled Lightning Bugs and Yaya’s Hugs. The children’s story, along with a few discussions questions for the adult reading the book with the child, will be on one side of the book. When you flip the book over, you can read Lighting the Path: The Adult’s Guide to Helping Children Read and Understand Lightning Bug and Yaya’s Hugs. Lighting the Path will focus on what the adult can expect from the grieving child with a focus on specific ways to help and the wide array of grief responses that may occur. 

 I worked in hospice for 23 years prior to building Wings of Change Publications, and I know the struggles of finding the right information. I always felt like I was piecing materials together, but I rarely felt I could get a solid resource under one cover to offer my patients or clients in need.

Our goal is to offer thorough, sensitive, beautiful products at affordable prices that you feel good about giving to your patients, families, and bereavement clients. I’m happy to say that we have achieved this our final product, and the experience of writing with my daughter and completing this sweet little project.

Sometimes, the next generation has lessons from which we can gain. We can get the job done AND create balance in our lives.

This mama is still working on mastering that lesson. 😊

Email us if you would like to be on the waiting list to be notified of our book release: info @ wingsofchangepublications.com.