The Right Words at the Right Time Volume 2; Your Turn!

by Marlo Thomas; Bruce Kluger; Carl Robbins; David Tabatsky

• ISBN13: 9780743497435
• ISBN10: 0743497430
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-25
• Publisher: Atria

Summary

From big cities to farm communities, from office cubicles to hospital wards, from Normandy Beach to Boston's Fenway Park, the contributors to this remarkable volume -- selected from among thousands in a nationwide search -- tell rive

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xix
Foreword	xxi
PART ONE The Simple Stuff
The Homecoming	3	(5)
Timothy Ciciora
A Beautiful Shade of Yellow	8	(4)
Jackie Sigmund
A Message in a Teddy Bear	12	(3)
Daniel Walisiak
An Umbrella to Remember	15	(3)
Susyn Reeve
Wisdom on Wheels	18	(2)
Maralyn Schwer
Confessions of a Plain Jane	20	(3)
Jane E. Van Leuven
Zen and the Art of Trying	23	(4)
DeMar Regier
Guinea Pigs, Pancakes, and Why I Hate Nike	27	(3)
Ame Stargensky
Eye on the Road	30	(5)
Zev Saftlas
PART TWO At a Crossroads
Forty	35	(3)
Ann Swinford
The Big Fix	38	(4)
Mary N.
Breaking the Chains	42	(4)
Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant
Jumping the Tracks	46	(4)
Nicole Hanton
The Clock	50	(4)
Joan Mueller
Busted!	54	(4)
Ann Pierce
What I Found on the Couch	58	(4)
Dan C.
Prison Saved Me	62	(7)
Dax Xenos
PART THREE Taking Chances
My Perfect Mess	69	(5)
Nancy Roman
Facing the Music	74	(4)
Kathleen Muldoon
Bottom of the Ninth	78	(4)
Marlon LeTerrance
Everyone Is Shy	82	(3)
Julie Knapp
Bull Ahead	85	(4)
Donna Surgenor Reames
The Juror	89	(4)
Christine Ducey
The Right Road	93	(8)
Debra Cheehy
PART FOUR Finding Yourself
Coffee with Sam	101	(4)
Michael Raysses
What Mama Said	105	(5)
Thomas Kennedy
The Ride Home	110	(4)
Mike Sackett
Through My Daughter's Eyes	114	(4)
Beverly Tribuiani-Montez
On the Same Ground	118	(4)
Tena Zapantis
More Than Feet and Inches	122	(3)
Ruthie Just Braffman
Saved!	125	(4)
Ted LoRusso
By Any Means Necessary	129	(6)
Ron Rey
PART FIVE Survival
A Silent Night in Vietnam	135	(6)
Stephen T. Banko III
Bitter or Better	141	(3)
Judith Grace
Within My Reach	144	(4)
Pius Kamau
A Single Word	148	(4)
Janice Ann Nelson
A Serious Case of the L.I.D.s	152	(3)
David Parker
The Poem That Reached Through Time	155	(3)
Diana Michael
Chew Your Water	158	(4)
Terrie McKenna
Nobody Dies Here	162	(3)
Bob Lenox
Doing the Thing You Cannot Do	165	(3)
Carole O'Hare
15 Minutes	168	(7)
Katie Adair
PART SIX Friends & Family
The Well	175	(4)
Charlie Riggs
The Boy at Ground Zero	179	(5)
Paul Keating
That's What Friends Are For	184	(3)
David Sanger
Grandma's Big Secret	187	(5)
Anne Shaw Heinrich
Sassy	192	(5)
Patti Virella
A Hitchhiker's Tale	197	(5)
Robert J. Simmons
Just Enough of Today	202	(3)
Shara Pollie
The Greatest Gift	205	(3)
Stella Pulo
Win-Win	208	(3)
Mauricio Heilbron, Jr.
Just Getting Started	211	(6)
Cynthia Harris
PART SEVEN On the Job
Stacking the Logs	217	(3)
Frank Lunn
Passing the Test	220	(3)
Margery Hauser
Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda	223	(3)
Linda Roth Conte
Wanted	226	(3)
Gor Yaswen
What You Tolerate	229	(3)
Gerry Oguss
Truck No. 15	232	(4)
Bert Goolsby
Love at Work	236	(4)
Ruth B. Spiro
Shirkaholic	240	(5)
John Donohue
PART EIGHT Love & Romance
Falling for Charlie	245	(5)
Janet Guillet
Love Song	250	(3)
Laura Neumeyer
Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants	253	(4)
Geralyn Ruane
50--50	257	(4)
Brenda Degner
Grab Him and Kiss Him	261	(3)
Kaye Whillock
The Anniversary Card	264	(2)
Elizabeth Morrissey
You Just Know	266	(4)
Lisa Mercurio
Australian Love Story	270	(7)
Diana Harley
PART NINE Keeping the Faith
Yelling at God	277	(3)
Carol Kodish-Butt
An Unexpected Prayer	280	(2)
Steve Martinez
Good Enough for Now	282	(4)
Rebecca Marie Barkin
Circles in the Dirt	286	(2)
Jon B. Fish
Coming to America	288	(5)
Herbert Launer
Being Carried	293	(4)
Denise Horbaly
Repairing My World	297	(6)
Tom Yulsman
PART TEN Essentials
Covering All the Bases	303	(3)
Jay Ratliff
Every Person I Meet	306	(3)
Kathleen Nash
Help!	309	(3)
Jacqueline Sia
One Does What One Can	312	(3)
Kathy Faught
The Chemistry Test	315	(4)
Eric Dodson Greenberg
The Credit Hammer	319	(3)
Archie Harper
The Pride Inside	322	(2)
Stephanie Castillo
Nana After Hours	324	(3)
Lloyd Lederkramer
The Accidental Accordionist	327	(3)
Kay Hickman
A Bird on Your Head	330	(5)
Wanda Thomas
PART ELEVEN Letting Go
Growth in the Valley	335	(3)
Richard Cook
My Father's Daughter	338	(3)
Karri Watson
It Went Unspoken	341	(5)
Mark Drought
A Matter of Forgiveness	346	(3)
A Hero's Return	349	(6)
Susan Luzader
Celebrating Jonathan	355	(3)
Amy Jaffe Barzach
The Unthinkable	358	(3)
Terry Naylor
My Sister's Letter	361	(8)
Paul E. Mulryan
PART TWELVE The Bottom Line
Nothin' But a Thing	369	(3)
Dorsey Prince Leonard
The Pentagon, 9/11	372	(3)
April Gallop
Keep It in Your Head	375	(4)
Marne Benedict
The Broken Lamp	379	(4)
Tim O'Driscoll
Surviving Mom	383	(4)
Ann Hite
Waiting for My Real Life to Begin	387	(3)
Maureen Ryan Griffin
Coda	390	(7)
Gregory Fouts
PART THIRTEEN A St. Jude Story
A Regular Kid	397
Lindsey Wilkerson

Excerpts

Foreword I never saw the woman's face. I only heard her voice. It was spring of 2002, and I was in the middle of a radio interview, talking about my new book,The Right Words at the Right Time, in which I had asked 108 famous people -- people I admired -- to write about the words that changed their lives. Halfway through the interview, a listener called the station and told a story that would stay with me. Her teenage son had been in a terrible car accident, the woman said, and as she sat in the hospital waiting to learn his fate, two doctors prepared her for the worst. "You have to know when to let go," said the first doctor, gently warning her that her son was probably not going to make it. The second doctor, believing that her child might pull through, cautioned her that, due to his injuries, he'd never be the same again. Then he added, "But life is precious." Both men were telling the truth as they saw it, the caller explained, but their words couldn't have been more different. "I sat there trying to decide which words I would hold on to through that night," she remembered, confessing that neither scenario was something she'd ever dreamed of happening to her son. "But in the end, I hung on to the words of the second doctor. Because lifeisso precious. And these were the words that gave me strength to endure the life trial that was to come." The woman was so honest, and her account so moving. I'd been hearing stories like this ever since the book had come out. Everywhere I went, people were eager to tell me about the right words intheirlives. In airports. At book signings. In countless, heartfelt letters sent through the mail. That day in the radio station, I was reminded that we're surrounded by heroes everywhere -- and I thought about how exciting it would be to assemble a new collection of right words stories, not from celebrities this time, but from everyday Americans. Famous people have lots of opportunities to be heard. This book would provide a voice for everyone else. The more I thought about the idea, the more I realized that the best way to find stories for the book would be to cast a net across the country -- along both coasts and through the heartland. And so we did. We announced a nationwide contest in the pages of the paperback edition ofRight Words, asking readers to search their memories for that vivid moment in their lives when words made all the difference. We set up a website for online submissions. We hung posters in hospitals and military posts, in schools and police stations and prisons. AndParademagazine, which had been a champion of the first book, lent a hand by soliciting stories from its readers. It didn't take long for millions of thoughtful words to suddenly materialize around me -- riveting, well-rendered letters, more than a thousand all together, from 30 states and three countries. Reading them late into the night was a joy, but choosing the 101 essays that would appear in this book was daunting. People didn't simply send us random thoughts that strung together a few memorable words from their past. They sent us theirstories, pieces of their lives. As I'd learned from the first book, the right words can transform us. They can challenge us at a crossroads; they can help us through times of sorrow; they can dare us to action. They can be spoken with love or shouted in anger. The right words can be funny words, thought-provoking words, words that prop us up when we think we can go no further.

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