Author's Den with International Author Frank Gaertner your host Lizy

Author's Den with International Author Frank Gaertner writter of the book Sally’s Magic River  your host Lizy your host Lizy

10, life as I knew it came to an abrupt end. One November evening in 1948, as I was trying to finish eating dinner, my father, Herbert Valentine Gaertner, a man who everybody loved dearly, including me, rose from his easy chair to speak to my mother. She was in the kitchen cleaning up. I had been left to finish eating string beans which I hated because I always gagged on them. Apparently, my mother didn’t know how to remove the strings. All three of us were listening to one of our family’s favorite radio shows, Mr. and Mrs. North, a fun detective series. My father rose from his chair, walked in front of the table where I was seated, came face to face with my mother and was about to speak to her when he suddenly started making a horrible noise. He abruptly collapsed to fall with a crash flat on his back. The ambulance came and we all road to the hospital together. They said my father had passed away at the hospital having had a massive heart attack. I know better. I’m sure he was all but dead by the time he hit the floor. My life turned upside down. This was and still is the worst day of my life. But in retrospect it defined me, to become, in some strange way, the best day of my life. Sally’s story is a little like mine. Her life is turned upside down at the age of 10. And I know that it is a story that many people share. Many people have had great tragedies happen at an early age. Their lives, too, have been turned upside down. But, depending on what one does after such an incident, I think many people experience that magic happens over time, and have found as I have that the worst day becomes in some strange way the best day of one’s life. For example, Sally and I learned the secret of the vision quest.