Patricia Rosemoor and Sherill Bodine | WHAT WAS WRITTEN IN OUR STARS

Sherrill: When my friend and co-author Patricia Rosemoor and I set out to write WRITTEN IN THE STARS, our reincarnation epic love story of danger and destiny, we thought about how destiny had played a role in our lives.

Absolutely I believe my destiny was written in my stars from the day I was born.

From a very, very young age I knew being the daughter of a woman declared
mentally challenged at birth meant my destiny was to completely accept her as my
mother and be her daughter in all ways.

I also knew my destiny was to prove to everyone that my grandparents were right
when they chose to rear my mother exactly as they did all her siblings, although
at that time many children with her challenges were either hidden away or
institutionalized. And they were right to allow my mother to give birth, even
though the male progenitor of the child was unknown and the doctors warned the
baby could have the same challenges or worse.

Then I had a keen sense of my own destiny but I wasn’t always so steadfast. As
in the case of my husband.

Fast forward from my childhood to my seventeenth summer.

I grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, where Purdue University is located. Often
college guys dated “townie” girls. John was a blind date in April of my senior
year in high school.

I “stood him up” on our first date – but that is another story which will be in
my memoir!

It is now August. John and I dated all summer but it had been rocky. I had
seen the worst of men in my role of protecting my mother from predators. I did
not give my trust or my open affection easily – if at all.

All summer I had also dated other guys and now that John and I were no longer
seeing one another, I simply kept up that pattern. I had given little thought
to John leaving very soon to go home. When he returned I would be at Indiana
University – having worked 12 hour days selling magazines door to door to pay
for going away to college.

I was at the Frozen Custard, our iconic teenage hangout – sitting in the car of
one of the other guys I’d dated all summer.

I swear what I am about to tell you is absolutely true.

This strange voice in my head said, “It is wrong for you to let John leave. Get
out of the car and go to his fraternity house. He will be there. It is your
destiny to be together.”

I can still remember the hot fear at that moment. Shaking, I got out of the
car, asked my friend, Pam, to drive me to the fraternity house. Instantly, she
said yes and added when she returned to the Frozen Custard she would be hitting
on my date because he was so hot.

I didn’t care. I was too frightened by this strange feeling and the odd voice
in my head leading me down a path to change the course of my life.

When I arrived at the fraternity house, the great room was deserted, but I
simply stood, knowing John would come.

He did. Just as he was meant to do.

Patricia:

From the time I was a kid, my mom would tell me I could be anything, do anything
I wanted. Except I should have a back up plan. And I should be prepared to give
it all up when I got married because that’s what my husband would expect. My
answer to her: “Then I’ll never get married.” She would tell me not to talk
nonsense, of course.

Even as a kid I was drawn to anything creative. I was in theater at twelve.
Worked for a local newspaper when I was fifteen. Took classes in television
production the moment I got into college. Got a Masters of Television. Worked as
an educational radio-television producer and was part of a theater company and
did photography back in the days when we printed our black and white photos
ourselves. I knew I was destined to do something creative, something special,
something that wasn’t a job but that was who I was.

I always knew I was not cut out for that back up plan that Mom insisted I have.
And that I would never get married and live the way someone else expected.

Until I met Edward.

I was thirty.

It was kind of a bizarre first meeting at a girls’ camp in Michigan. A work
friend talked me into “camping” on Presidents’ Day weekend – in bunkhouses, not
outside. The first person we saw when we entered the mess hall was Edward
wearing his knit cap and Dr. Who scarf wrapped around his neck to keep him warm.
I wasn’t impressed. Not then, not when we all rode out in the snow – all
including his eight year old and twelve year old sons.

But something weird happened over dinner. He was an artist having to make his
living restoring antiques. His best friend at the Art Institute was a teacher I
had not only worked with, but who was a good friend of mine. His older son was
in theater. I had tried out for a play at their church and if I had gotten the
mother’s part, I would have played his son’s mother. And Edward had a way about
him–warm and humorous and easy-going. I couldn’t imagine him telling anyone how
to live. He won me over.

The next week, he called and we dated. Once. I knew he was something special.
I swear what I am about to tell you is absolutely true.

The next night I had a date with an on again-off again boyfriend who I’d known
for nine years. NINE YEARS! And I felt guilty. I kept thinking of Edward, and
when the evening was done, I told the old boyfriend that this was the last
goodbye.

Against all reason, after one date, I KNEW. There wasn’t anyone else for me. I
knew my future would be with Edward. And I was right. Edward was my rock, the
person who pushed me to be the best writer I could be, to grab my dream of being
an author with both hands and run with it. Edward was truly my soulmate. He
still is, though he fell victim to a brain tumor several years back. If there is
another life beyond this one, I plan to hook back up with him there.