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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Dedication to my Daughter

Separation is the last thing I want to think or blog about. Yet it’s been on my mind non-stop since yesterday, when my daughter kissed me, said, “I love you, Mom,” and announced they are moving away to Virginia. What breaks my heart is that I am going to be separated from my adorable 3 and 5 year-old granddaughters.

Of course my daughter and her husband have the right to move anywhere they want or anyplace that’s convenient to them. He’s been without work since last November and interviewing right and left in a desperate attempt to find a job. He hasn’t found one yet but they have decided it would be easier to be in Washington to job hunt.

I wish them well and pray that he can find a job soon. But how am I going to cope with my little ones moving a thousand miles away?

I know I can rely on my husband, my writing and my wonderful friends. And I will be extremely busy with the promotion of my third book.

BABIES IN THE BARGAIN is a sweet and spicy medical romance that garnered several wins in contests and is based on my daughter’s professional experience. Needless to say, the book is dedicated to her as she read and corrected the medical cases.

My heroine is a pediatrician and a neonatologist finishing her residency and training in a children’s hospital in Washington. Same as my daughter did. And my heroine Holly “coincidentally” shares some of the medical cases and emotional career turmoil that my daughter faced during her tough training. But the coincidental similarities stop here.

My heroine is attracted to a tall, dark and handsome hero (hmm son-in-law is also T, D, and H, pure coincidence again). My hero is a Puerto Rican doctor. Now this is pure fiction.


The story behind BABIES IN THE BARGAIN started on a Christmas Day, a few years ago, when my daughter was still a first year neonatology fellow. She was on-call on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day—as she’d been for the previous three years.



To share the holiday season, we called her and said we were coming to have lunch with her at the cafeteria. My husband and son helped me carry the elaborate home-cooked meal and the wrapped presents. We shared a happy lunch with the guest of honor wearing green scrubs.


  • Later, she invited us to visit the NICU. We slipped yellow gowns over our clothes and scrubbed before entering the room where five preemies fought for their lives. I approached one of the isolettes and noticed that the preemie wore a dress with Christmas prints. My daughter explained that a nurse sewed the tiny outfits for the babies in residence over the holiday. I realized that the dedication of the NICU personnel, including my daughter, went beyond the performance of a well-done job. They gave a hundred and one percent to the babies they helped save and did it happily. On that Christmas Day, I decided to write a story featuring the wonderful doctors and nurses who treated our loved ones.
I wish you a happy time as you read the story of Holly Collier, a beautiful and dedicated neonatologist who spends many hours in the hospital NICU, and falls in love with Marc Suarez, the dashing Puerto Rican doctor who shares her journey.
  • Contest: Answer in the comment of this blog:
I am sure you all have faced separation. How did you deal with the situation? How long did it take you to adjust?
  • WINNERS OF FRIDAY 6/5/09
Babyblue 22 (Afshan) and Laurie Gommermann Congratulations you are my winners for the first contest.
Please let me know in the comments if you want 2 medical romances or specify any one of the books mentioned as prizes.

There will be many more next week. Stay tune.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

When my husband passed away I had to learn to live alone. Even though I have 2 kids it was still an adjustment. Seemed like it took forever. After about a couple of years you finally get used to it.
I think most kids have a little seperation anxiety when they leave home after they graduate from school, go to college or get married.

cheryl c said...

Mona, your daughter moving away must be killing you. I know that it would break my heart for my kids to move away.

I used to absolutely bawl when I had to say good-bye to my parents when I was newly married. They lived several states away, and I just saw them a couple of times a year. But when my dad retired, they moved here to be close to me and my young children. My mother has passed away, but my dad still lives close by and is doing well at the age of 84.

Maybe your daughter and her family won't be gone for long. Wouldn't it be an answered prayer for the job to be right back at home after all. Good luck! (In the meantime, there are emails and phone calls!)

By the way, the book sounds great! :-)

Cheryl (aka Cheri)

Babyblue22 said...

What a great post Mona!! I think it wonderful that you deticated the book to your daughter.
She must be sad to leave you also and it will be hard but you'll make it through.

My best friend from third grade moved away years ago to ohio, and it was so hard at first, not having her around when she's always been there was hard to deal with but we talked on the phone like all the time and e-mail, sent pictures and texted....It didn't make up for her being gone but it helped a little.
Maybe your daughter can get a web cam so you guys could actually see each other and you could watch your little grandbabies :-D.


WOOHOO!!! I was a winner from the first contest!!
So I picked books from the prize list My choice's are
The Naked Baron by Sally MacKenzie
and your book French Peril !!!

Thnaks So Much Mona!!

~Afshan

Jane said...

Leaving home for the first time for college was extremely hard. On the one hand you're itching for a little more privacy and freedom, but you're also feeling as if a piece of yourself is missing because you're away from home. There were a lot of phone calls during the first few months.

Laurie G said...

I can so relate to the separation from your daughter. Most of the year my daughter & I are 1500 miles apart! However, we do get together at Xmas, Easter and part of the summer. We appreciate each other more and enjoy our time together.
Hopefully you can visit your daughter in Virginia a lot!

Thank you for choosing my name as one of your winners!!

I would love to read Robyn Carr's Temptation Ridge. I've read several of her books but somehow missed this one.

The medical romances were a close second but I wasn't sure if you would send me books I already had read(?).

THANKS!

Molly Daniels said...

When we moved down here, my hubby was still working 2 hours north. Suddenly, I was not only cleaning out and setting up a new house, but was full-time single mommy and getting the kids adjusted to new schools. He comes home on the weekends, and is home all winter, but when he does return to work, the first two weeks are always tough, remembering I no longer have someone to back me up.

But we adjust, and once in a while we go up and spend the weekend with him, if he's working 6 days a week. And then there's always the period of readjustment when he comes home...we have to remember to include him, grin!

Mona Risk said...

Kimmyl, it must have been so hard to learn to live alone. I admire you for gathering your life together and going on. When my kids left for college, and later on to work in different cities I went from room to the other shedding a few tears and smiling at good memories.

Mona Risk said...

Hi Cheri, I was like you, very attached to my parents. My mother came to live next to us after my father's death. I came to terms with the fact that I can't have my granddaughters next to me forever. My daughter and her husband have to go where they can find a job and make a living. As you say, we'll rely on emails and phones.

Mona Risk said...

Afshan, the web cam is a great idea. I am going to suggested it to my DH. Congratulations on winning. My FRENCH PERIL is still in ebook. The hard copy should be released next month. Can I send you the ebook or do you prefer to wait till I get the hard copy?

Mona Risk said...

Jane, I can believe there are a lot of phone calls after you leave for college. When my daughter left for college, we received such an impressive phone bill, one of the calls showed three hours!!! My DH called AT&T complaining about an error but they insisted: no error. We checked with my daughter. She became immediately defensive. She was depressed and HAD to talk to her best friend. It was either this or quitting. Of course, we said, that's okay.

Mona Risk said...

Laurie, congratulations on winning. Temptation Ridge is yours. It's a great book. BTW I have an impressive collection of medical romances, many I never had time to read as I was a member of HQ club and received four every month for years. I will always have different ones. Keep it in mind.

I am glad you are enjoying your daughter although she's far. I am looking forward to doing the same.

Mona Risk said...

Oh Molly, I spent twenty years doing the same as my DH was gone overseas two weeks per month. I had to cope with every crisis on my own but then when he stepped back home I was expected to handle the reins and back up.

Babyblue22 said...

Hey Mona,
I e-book Format is fine!!!
:-D Can't wait to read it!!!
~Afshan

Estella said...

My son was just barely eighteen when he left home for basic Naval training in Great Lakes.
That is three quarters of the continent away from me.
It took a couple of months for me to adjust to his being gone.

Mona Risk said...

Babyblue22, you'll get my ebook FRENCH PERIL right away.

I will ship the others on Monday.

Mona Risk said...

Estella, that must have been so hard to see your son going to the Navy at eighteen. You are a brave mamma and patriotic one.

Mary Ricksen said...

I know it's not the same as a person. But right now I am facing a separation that is sad for me. I raised a wonderful baby German Shepherd girl from around 8wks to a year. Needless to say I am attached to her. My BIL decided to take her back so he has a companion at nite. He leaves her in a back room most of the time. Because barking and licking upset him. So that is hard for me.
Now your daughter and the kids moving would make me sick. I am so sorry for you, even just to hear it.

Mona Risk said...

Mary, I know how sad it is to lose a loved dog. Went through that years ago when we moved from on place to another. We left our German Sheperd to the local police but I can't tell you how much we all cried, adults and kids.

Mona Risk said...

from Arlene...

To answer the question, “how did you deal with seperation”

The answer is with everything else "God give me a faith that expects greater things, anxious in nothing, at peace with promise that I’ve done all that I can, You will take care of the rest”.

Mary Marvella said...

Wow, good question. short separations have always been rough, When I married and moved from Georgia to Boston with my soldier husband,I missed my family a lot, but it would only be for a year. Years later when we moved to Mexico, MO, I had no idea how long we would be away.

There were times when my daughter was too far for me to drive in a day and I hated that.