Allow me to introduce myself again

At the present moment, I'm focused on being the son of Elizabeth Barlow Wood. She's not quite 79, in fact on Thursday she'll reach the precise age of her step-mother on the day she died -- and will then "out-survive" her parents. All three of them. Her father lived to be 77, her step-mother lived to be 78 plus nine months plus 29 days -- Mom's age on Thursday -- but her biological mother, Mary Gallagher Barlow, died in January 1940 at the age of 29. My mother's on my mind all the time right now. Three weeks ago, she had a massive cerebral hemorrhage that led to a stroke, disabling her in ways we don't yet know. She's recovering and it's likely she'll live some time longer, whether a month or ten years, we don't know. But on Saturday, she was finally able to mouth words and sentences through her tracheostomy. Before I left to return to Florida, I said, "I love you, Mom," and she mouthed back, "I love you, too." A priceless memory for me, no matter what happens.

Mothers, we owe them so much. I learned even that from my own -- how, even days before her stroke, more than 70 years after her mother Mary's death, she mentioned her mother, how she missed her still.

What Mom and most other people don't know is that my novel is a tribute to her mother. My heroine, Agnes Limerick, and her story are based on the life of Mary Gallagher Barlow. But with a lot of twists, because in my story, Agnes lives, prospers, and becomes an early feminist in 1930s-1940s Philadelphia. Mary may have died in real life, but I've resurrected her in the form of Agnes Limerick. And I've allowed her to live a long, rewarding, and fulfilling life. I've also brought many other characters to life -- some real, some not so real. And most people don't know that. Her husband, Norman Balmoral, was really my grandfather, Ralph Barlow. Her daughter, Grace, is my mother Elizabeth. Her mother, Siobhan Doherty Limerick, was really Mary's mother, Eleanor Enright Gallagher. Her piano teacher, Brian Larney, was really my own piano teacher, Ralph Zitterbart. Her dear mother-in-law, Victoria Balmoral, was really my other great-grandmother, the first Elizabeth Barlow. And other characters are brand new: Gracie Honeywalker, Cristina Rosamilia, just to name a few.

This is my fourth round robin, and I'm planning to repeat what I did in the third one, which is to do the daily writes from the points of view of my novel's characters. No one knows that, either.