“Only you,” my husband said, “would trade a shoe for a book.”
“What’s worth more?” I asked, “Maimonides, or some old shoe?”
I knew that I had the better of the argument, and my husband would understand. After all, our first date had been a trip to a bookstore. But he just shrugged and sighed. Where had my book-loving husband gone?
“You’ve changed,” I said.
“It’s not that you have a book instead of a shoe,” he said, “It’s that you never remember making the trade. You’ve changed.”
It’s true that I sometimes head to the kitchen hoping to get a chocolate éclair from the freezer and return holding a small frog. I don’t know how the frog got into the kitchen. I just know that it’s something new, and interesting enough to make me forget the chocolate éclair. My husband should be glad that I can be distracted by a frog in the kitchen. Certainly, my waistline thanks me.
And I still have my wits about me. To prove it, when we returned home, I sat on the couch, opened Guide for the Perplexed, and started to read. I was, after all, perplexed, and could use a guide.
Author's Comment
I woke from dreaming of the images in the first sentence of this story, and knew I had to elaborate – but just a little bit.
Writer, Barb Drummond, grew up in a home filled with crazy antics, love, laughter, and an exceptionally unique and zany mother. Who else had a mom who baked cream pies just so she’d have one on hand to throw at people she loved?
Barb’s mother Sybil, however, drew the short straw by getting Alzheimer’s in her 60s. The disease stole her vibrant personality and voice. When Sybil died, an ordinary obituary just wouldn’t do. She was a glamorous Renaissance woman filled with creativity; a former ER nurse who saved lives; she was what movies are made of. Her sense of humour and charm made friends far and wide.
Barb wrote the quirky obituary with her mom’s voice. No one could’ve predicted the obit would go viral within 24 hours—worldwide! Hundreds of thousands of people internationally read about Sybil Marie Hicks and her smoking hot body—and they wanted more! Barb’s memoir takes you into her mother’s life and the media whirlwind when her mom became an instant worldwide celebrity after she died.
Within hours of its release, I Finally Have the Smoking Hot Body hit #1 best-seller status on Amazon. It continues to reach readers around the world and has been featured on CBC Radio and other media.
Barb's book is more than just a story, it’s a book that keeps on giving. A percentage of sales is donated to the Alzheimer’s Society, helping to support families impacted by this devastating disease.
In this hilarious, quirky, and poignant memoir, you’ll fall in love with Sybil and wish you’d known her in real life. (Even if she’d smoosh a cream pie in your face!)
Meet Barb and her mom on Barb’s website.
Available from Amazon.
Lynn Gazis grew up in the suburbs of New York City, spent her young adulthood in the San Francisco Bay Area, and now lives in Southern California. She has worked for around 40 years in IT. More recently, she has started writing short fiction. Her stories have been published by Cathedral Canyon Review, Air and Nothingness Press, and Friends Journal. 
As an artist, musician and poet, Donna Bauman says, “my life has been all about being a seeker, asking questions, exploring, creating. As a creator of beauty, I feel inspired to radiate as much of the feminine spirit as possible. I am here to bring inspiration into form. My desire is that my creations will enter into people’s lives in an inspiring and transforming way.”