I get this question a lot. How much of the story is real?
When I started this story I started it from a point in the future of our life together. So exactly what is real?
The Lake – Lake Elwood is a real lake. It is located in The Northwoods in Wisconsin. My husband grew up there. He spent his summers on the water and his winters on the snow trails.
California – I did grow up partly in Wisconsin and California. I lived on the Central Coast.
The Accident – When my son was in kindergarten he was in class walking with a pencil, lead side up. He tripped on the carpet and fell face-first onto the pencil, impaling himself in the eye. He ended up having to be life flighted to the closest Children’s Hospital. It traumatized his classmates that saw it happened and they still talk about it to this day.
Cancer – This is the one thing that luckily is not true. I do not nor have never had cancer (knock of wood). However, our family has been touched by it several times. My oldest daughter had a very good friend in High School that had passed away from cancer and then only several years later her fiancee also passed from cancer.
Surgeries – I have had numerous brain surgeries. I have a condition called Intercraninial Hypertension or Pseudotumor. It is when your body produces too much spinal fluid and it ends up pressing on your brain causing you to have symptoms similar to a brain tumor. I had a VP Shunt put in in 2008 and revised in 2011. They last about 10 years so I am pretty much overdue for one.
Family – Julie and Cooper are based on my brother and sister-in-law and they do really live in the house that my husband grew up in. We do have 2 daughters, 1 son, 1 cat and 1 dog.
Our life – We did meet at Breadsmith and my manager was his friend. He had just been broken up with by his long-term girlfriend and I had just been broken up by my long-term boyfriend. We were pregnant by tax day, married by September and new parents before we were even together a year.
