VFCC reads their sweatshirt

At 4:30 yesterday I was hard at work on my novel when there came a loud knock.

I was in my novel trance and wondered who it could be.

Of course! Audrey Moody was here to pick me up and whisk me away to Valley Forge Christian College for me to make a presentation to her class on my favorite illness.

VF Christian used to be Valley Forge Hospital but was cleverly converted into an Assemblies of God church. The only people I know of that religion are my accountant and a deceased friend of mine, Mary Pasorini, who plays a cameo role in my novel.

"That girl forgets she has a mother!" Mary tells the visiting Mollie Feigenbaum. I actually lived in the same apartment complex as Mary who fed me with her golden pizelles and chestnut-filled cookies at Xmas time. Her sister Angie died in the tragic explosion that killed 6 people when Hurricane Allison made her merciless visit in 2001.

The drive to the college was spectacular. Since I'm always the driver, I love to sight-see out the window. Audrey and I were chatting away -- she used to be the therapist for my deceased brother David, though she barely remembered him but for his dark hair and eyes -- and I was peripherally watching the flowing countryside we drove thru.

Audrey announced this was Valley Forge National Park. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Little log cabins stood here and there reminding us that George Washington and his troops once camped out here. Very hilly ground, as well as sacred ground.

The 15 or so students were a wonderful audience. I got our New Directions website up on the huge screen. Classrooms are not like when I went to college in the 1960s or for my master's in the late 1980s. They are techno-advanced. Every seat has an outlet to plug in your laptop. Students at VF had a choice of an Apple or a Dell. Make mine Apple. (I've got a Dell.)

All the classrooms are the same. I'd call them Your Standard Generic Classroom. Nothing much to look at, but oh what a difference a good teacher makes.

The goal of course is to keep the student's attention. No need for me to prepare my material since I live the situation every day. But I wanted to give the 'kids' a feel of what it feels like to have the illness.

So I brought Chapter 10 of my book and read a selection. This is the first time I've shared it with anyone other than my own personal Annie Sullivan. The class was riveted, I'm glad to say.

I've got a precious 90 minutes right now to get back to work on it. Must squeeze time in whenever I can.

It CAN be done, ladies and gentlemen, yes it can.