Some see a white light. Others see God. I saw the future without me. Yep, that’s what went through my head when I was at death’s door some years ago. Like in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” only it wasn’t “Everyone would be better off if I’d never been born,” but “What would Sandy (my husband) do without me?” Funny, the thoughts that go through your head when you’re lying in a hospital bed, sick as sick can be. (Of course, it could also have been the painkillers.)
Anyway…flash forward ten years. I got better, as you can see. But the idea stuck in my mind. How would Sandy survive in my absence? More specifically, would he remarry…and whom? (Part of me imagines him so bereft, he’d spend the rest of his life in mourning, never looking at another woman, but hey, I’m a realist – life goes on & men do look). Thus, the seed for THE REPLACEMENT WIFE took root. In it, a professional matchmaker, Camille Harte, learns she has 6 months to live, and after much agonizing, sets out to find her husband’s next wife. This, of course, has unexpected consequences, of which tales are made. I got to live out my worst-case scenario, and it was, to say the least, an emotional journey.
Often I’m asked where the ideas for my novels come from. In this case, the answer is: literally from my death bed. Maybe that’s why it was so hard to write…and so moving to me, personally. I hope you find my tale moving as well. It certainly will be food for thought: Would you? Could you? Would he?
