The Wartime Matchmakers

Chapter 2

This is the longest book I’ve ever written. It has taken more than a year and a half to complete, but I believe it was worth the work and, for readers, worth the wait. I had help from so many people I wish to mention:

Madeline Martin, a wonderful author and friend, inspired me to write a WWII-set story of my own and provided me with a list of research sources.

Evie’s Café at the Market in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I live, provided a lunchtime retreat where I could write for hours and people-watch (my favorite activity while I am writing).

My mother offered constant support during the writing of this story because she knew how emotionally draining it was to write something so real that had so much suffering in it. She reminded me every day that this story was worth the heartache and tears, that the story within these pages deserved to be told. She taught me from a young age that words matter and that stories change lives.

My father reads the Wall Street Journal every day and scoured its historical nonfiction book reviews to find excellent research material for me. He was the inspiration for Charles Humphrey. He fought in Vietnam and had to leave his young baby, my elder half-brother, behind with his wife, never knowing if he’d see them again. He also lost his dearest friend since childhood in the war. He showed me what it means to lose someone you love and to go on living a life of joy and meaning.

Wall Street JournalMy high school h*******t Studies teacher, Nancy Pettus, set me on a path that would define the rest of my life when she introduced me to real h*******t survivors like Eva Unterman and Harriet Sherber. My understanding of people—and the idea that living a wonderful life is the best revenge against those who’ve wronged you—comes from these women. Their strength, undaunted courage, compassion, and fierce love will exist long after their stars have returned to the night sky.

Lastly, I must thank a person I had so little time to know in life—my grandmother. My grandmother, Mary Louise Shofner, had two brothers who served in the US Navy during World War II. Great-Uncle Gerard came home, and Great-Uncle Walter died in one of the forgotten but hardest fought battles in the Pacific. Great-Uncle Walter served on the USS Peary, which was sunk along with many other ships in Darwin Bay, Australia, which suffered more damage and loss than Pearl Harbor. Ever since I was a child, I’ve felt a connection to my great-uncle that I couldn’t explain. I have possession of his Purple Heart and his other campaign medals, and I cherish them dearly. My grandmother was pregnant during the war and gave birth to my father in 1942. As I wrote Hetty’s story I couldn’t help but think what my grandmother must have felt as she held her son in her arms, not knowing that in twenty-some years he would be fighting in Vietnam.

PearyWhen I began to write this book, I had a dream one night where I saw my grandmother. I could feel in my very bones that she was visiting me in the way those we have loved and lost can do from time to time. I told her about this book in my dream, and she reached out and clasped my hand in hers, her eyes bright and full of wonder and curiosity. She said, “Tell me everything . . .” And so with this book, I did.

“Tell me everything . . .”