"The Stonebruise" by James C. McCormick

Mercy, how time flies!  When Granpa and I first married, a friend from Dallas, Mary Ladd, phoned to ask if I would be interested in typing up a manuscript for her boss, Jim McCormick.  Typing is to me what playing the piano or knitting is to others, so I said sure.

Mr. McCormick wasn't certain how our long-distance (Dallas to Tyler) transfer of information would work because he didn't trust any electronic stuff.  We ended up mailing edited manuscript back and forth, or I would drive up to Dallas to pick up original copy.

What I thought might take a few weeks at the most turned into several years as he completed his manuscript on a yellow legal pad, in pencil, and as he edited the printed manuscript that I turned out for him. I think I still have some of that stuff on a shelf in a closet somewhere - even after 28 years!

The book was so good that I increased my typing speed exponentially because I just couldn't wait to find out what was in the next sentence and paragraph and chapter!

One of our sons sent me a link a couple of weeks back where I could purchase a copy of that manuscript-turned-book-turned New York Times best seller.  So, I purchased it.

Yup.  It's the right one - just look at the dedication:

It's a historical novel encompassing a young East Texas boy growing up through Roosevelt's CCC camps, through World War II and a friendship with none other than Clark Gable, to his return to Texas and the building of a successful company.  It is, in fact, a sort of autobiography of Mr. McCormick's life. 

At the time that it was published my father-in-law was getting very debilitated by Parkinson's Disease and vision problems. Daddy John had grown up in East Texas, gone to the CCC, and worked with airplanes during World War II - even encountering Jimmy Stewart!  My mother-in-law began reading "The Stonebruise" aloud to him. He was so enthralled with the story that he would have Granny Beth read until she lost her voice!  As soon as she could speak again he would insist that she read more.

As Alzheimer's took over Daddy John's thoughts, Granny Beth cherished that book as a very special time that she was able to share with Daddy John at the end of his life.  That makes the book even more cherished by me, too.

I thank the Lord, and Mary Ladd, for bringing "The Stonebruise" into our lives long, long ago, in a faraway time and place...