The reading and book signing at the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford, British Columbia, is now in the past. It was a wonderful event–an attentive audience, great conversation, a beautiful room. I arrived to find everything set up: book display, flowers on the table where I would sign books; power point and screen set up for me to show photos; and coffee, tea and pastries ready for people to enjoy before, during and after the presentation. All of this was done by the staff and volunteers at the museum. All I had to do was show up–such a luxury! I went home happy and deeply grateful. Such wonderful people, such a beautiful museum.

Below is one of the photos taken by Wendi Neufeldt Nickel and posted on the museum’s Facebook page. Two of the people in the book-signing line were these two young sisters who handed me their copy of Child Bride and asked me to sign it. They were so quiet I could hardly hear them spell their names. I was delighted and surprised that they wanted the book. It’s not a children’s book, yet thinking about it now I can see that the story of a fourteen year old getting married and having children, a girl near their age might fascinate them. And I had mentioned during the reading that the story ends when I turned twelve so this is a story of a girl their own age, a girl who lived in “olden times,” something I would have loved to read too. How nice, how very, very nice that they want to read my book

To learn more about the museum click on the following link: https://mennonitemuseum.org/