The Farm on the Big Hill

        

When my family moved from Los Angeles back to Kentucky, my dad rented a farm house South of Carlisle when I was in the 1st grade. It was an old house with cracking paint, a fireplace, an upstairs and a porch swing by the front door. We were far from the noise or lights of the city and we were happy.

We only lived there less than one year, but my mom and I shared fond memories of the place and had entertained a dream of living there once again in some impossible future.

And now, as we enter the twilight of our lives, my mom will never see that dream happen as she prepares for her final act. I doubt I’ll ever live on a farm again, but I hate to see good dreams die and whither away, so I wrote that impossible future into my novel and lived it through my characters.

The farm house in the novel is based upon my memories of that year. Mom, if by some miracle you read this, I hope that I’ve kept that dream alive for us.