From the Editor

But the story behind how this gifted and compassionate writer found her calling is a message for us all. As Lyn tells it, "Before I made a living as a writer, I was a CPA and information technology project manager. And a very bad one. But I did it because I was convinced I couldn’t make a living as a writer. Six years ago, though, I held my breath and quit my job, raided my savings account and began writing. I’ve never been happier to be wrong about something.

"And I’m thinking about this because of something John Van Lente said to me in one of our early conversations for this story. He’s the social worker who taught me so much about child development and neurology. He said that one of the biggest fears children must master is the fear that what they’re drawn to do is not acceptable. They have to trust that there’s a future in what they find themselves drawn to. "

That really hit home with me. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to have that trust."

Lyn says her favorite kinds of stories are the ones where she goes beyond observing and truly gets involved as a participant. "So," she says, "on the day I went to STARS (a group originally started for at-risk kids), sat down in the homework room and tutored a young boy in math, I was in heaven. And STARS is an incredible place. The children are so exuberant—and lost in play. The entire afternoon I was there, I was smiling, or getting chillbumps, or both." She also fashioned Play-Doh creations with Sloan and Carter Koester in their north Naples home, followed them to horseback riding lessons and checked out how they decorated their rooms. "Sloan and Carter’s childhoods," Lyn says, "made me long for my own."

And then there were the two afternoons she spent with Mayra Lucio, "an incredible teen," Lyn says, "who should be running the world. There were so many things about Mayra I couldn’t find a way to include in the story. Like the fact that she pays the light bill with the money she earns from her after-school job. Like the fact that her principal at Immokalee High, Manny Touron, keeps a blue Yale pennant in his office, pinned to the wall. She brought it to him from her time at the Yale Junior Statesman Summer School program. ‘She is the reason we bust our butts,’ he told me."

Lyn’s story will challenge you to think … and will touch your heart. You’ll see her work again in future issues when she begins a regular series taking on new personal challenges that we all can relate to. Ever the participant-observer.

YES, WELCOME TO TOWN

Talk about great first impressions … NCH was running a handbag auction (Old Bags for Babies) not too long ago to raise money for a new pediatric unit. And up stepped Mariann MacDonald to announce that she and her family would add $2.5 million to the cause. She had just moved here with her husband, Bob, in July and says, "It’s our way of welcoming ourselves to the community." We’ll take MacDonalds like these on every corner. And may their entry to town inspire those who follow. Thanks, newcomers.