Author Lois
Winston, she who writes about me, stops by today to talk about her latest
addiction. Maybe she’ll write me an addiction like this and forget about
dumping dead bodies at my feet? A reluctant amateur sleuth can only hope…
I’ve recently become hooked on crossword puzzles.
With everything else I have to squeeze into the twenty-four hours of each day,
this seems rather puzzling to me—pun intended! After all, I have a book to
finish writing, and contrary to Anastasia’s hopes, I have no intention of refraining
from dumping dead bodies at her feet. My readers would be extremely upset.
I also have a staggering number of unread books
piling up on my bookshelves and in my Kindle. At this rate I’ll need to live
well past the century mark before I get to them all. And yet, I keep buying
more books! Then there’s life in general, including family responsibilities,
and of course, the need to sleep at least several hours a night.
So why am I devoting nearly an hour each day to the
crossword puzzles in my two daily newspapers? (Yes, I still read newspapers.
It’s where I get many of my ideas for my novels and all those dead bodies Anastasia
complains about.)
I think my new addiction must be attributed to my
dear friend Janice. She passed away recently after an eight-month battle with Stage
4 cancer. I spent much of that time taking her to doctor appointments and chemo
and visiting with her during her many hospitalizations. Janice always carried
around crossword puzzles with her. As a retired R.N., she knew the importance
of keeping her mind sharp, and she did so by exercising her brain in two ways:
She was a voracious reader of mysteries and romances and a diehard crossword
puzzle fan.
Having sat with her during hours of chemo, I know how
difficult it is to concentrate on a book during these sessions, given the
constant chatter from fifteen other chemo patients, their accompanying friends
or family members, and the nursing staff, all filling one fairly small room. In
addition, a TV was always blaring in the background. So Janice passed the time
working her crossword puzzles when she tired of conversation.
I sat down to work my first crossword puzzle after returning
from her memorial service. It had been an extremely emotional day, especially
since, as her oldest friend, I was one of the speakers. Perhaps she was somehow
sending me a subliminal message from Heaven that day. She had always believed
in angels, ghosts, and premonitions. I’ve always pooh-poohed the supernatural.
Was this her way of telling me she was right and I was wrong? Maybe. Because now
I’m working crossword puzzles each day to honor her memory and our lifelong
friendship. Hopefully, it will help keep my mind sharp. After all, there are
more Anastasia books to write and all those books to read, especially if it’s
going to take me decades to do so.
How about you? Have you ever had an experience that caused you to rethink how you felt about something?
How about you? Have you ever had an experience that caused you to rethink how you felt about something?
