Meet Delores Warner

I’m doing something a little different this time. I want to tell you about a woman who has been a friend of mine and an avid reader of this blog practically since I first started writing it — Delores Warner.

Delores wrote a book called Don’t Buy Too Many Green Bananas and she was one of my first clients when I was a freelance editor. Her book was about her experience taking care of her husband after he was diagnosed with ALS. She had looked for books to help her figure out how to do it at the time and couldn’t find any, so after her husband died, she sat down and wrote one. She had an appendix in the back with helpful suggestions for other caregivers such as how to put socks on someone who can’t push their feet into them and how to dry them off when you take them out of the tub after bathing them. Her book was used as a textbook in a nursing class, but she also just took her book around and donated it to doctor’s offices and the ALS Association. When she got it turned into a Kindle book, she finally started making some money off it, but that wasn’t why she wrote the book. She just wanted to help other caregivers.

Fast forward to the last few years. Delores had a stroke several years ago and worked hard to regain her motor dexterity. One of the things she took up was painting rocks. She puts together a Christmas newsletter that’s like a newspaper with jokes and puzzles mixed in with her family’s news. This last Christmas, she sent a bunch of pictures of rocks she had painted.

There was a woman in my church here, Frances, who had been an avid quilter and crafter. When she died, she donated her home and most of the things in it to my church. The pastor took me over there one day to look through her craft room and see if there was anything I wanted. As I was looking through her bookshelf, I saw a couple of rock painting books and thought of my friend, Delores. I took the books and mailed them to her with a request… I asked if she could paint a couple of rocks of my cats, Dobby and Kimba. I sent her several pictures of the cats and she commenced to painting. A few days ago, I received a package in the mail and there were my stone cats. Here’s a picture of Delores with them before she sent them to me:

Delores with Dobby and Kimba

I asked Delores if they could stand being outside, so she sealed them really well. When we get home, I want to put Dobby’s rock on his grave. When the time comes for Kimba, I’ll put her rock on her grave too.

I just wanted to give a shout-out to Delores who is as generous as she is talented. Thank you, my friend!

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