I woke up this morning and his name popped into my mind--Robert Noonan. Ok, it was kind of a selfish thought because it's my birthday...and Bob would nearly always send me an online "Lawson" card--beautiful art and music! Or he would call if we could get our connections... mostly my fault since I had problems with my phone then...
It's over five years since I met Bob online...it was to review his first novel...
I remember I wrote back and said it had too many errors in it and refused...LOL Well, he promptly asked for my help and I was helping him with one thing or another then on...
We became friends... Isn't that wonderful when you need never meet an individual, who lived at that time in Wisconsin, but can become close electronically??!!!
Now not a computer expert...but I was in comparison to Bob! LOL
So with my limited knowledge, I created a blog for him, even while I was explaining that a blog was not supposed to be stagnant, but one that he should continuously update...Well, it's still out there, never having been touched since then! You can see that it's not really a format to be updated, but it was what he wanted, so he was happy...
http://orphantraintrilogyauthor.blogspot.com/
Notice that all of his followers were women, older women... So we signed him up for the older groups that might be interested in his books...I likened them to Little House on the Prairie stories for those who know that television series... We found more sites out there--AARP, Not Over the Hill for instance and then the routine Facebook, LinkedIn, Gather...He worked very hard to both learn the computer at the same time he was trying to talk about his books. I know many were sold, but not enough to proceed to publish his fourth book, which would have closed out the series... Wildflowers was published first and began the reference to the orphan train which passed through communities from New York, but Bridie's Daughter was the main book which talked about the Orphan Train and the way children were moved west to find homes... Secrets was supposed to be the end, but he kept getting requests to know what happened to his characters... I hope his daughters will someday maybe put that final book in ebook form at least...
While spotlighted on Book Readers Heaven, I believe I published the one and only poem written by Robert--at my request...
Why I Write History
What I write is seen by thee
Arranged the way it ought to be
To tell a tale or present some facts
The words are guided by my acts
To share a time of days gone by
To share a time of days gone by
We feel that age and maybe cry
Unable to return and change things then
Accepting all that has been
The past can make our hearts react
The past can make our hearts react
But all words written should be exact
To please myself is what I do
Wishing it is the same for you
To reveal the past is all inspiring
To reveal the past is all inspiring
Where I do my desired reveling
I share with all my heartfelt words
So those gone by can still be heard
Robert Noonan had great sympathy for those children who were orphans...I know that it came from his own strong and deep love for this own children and his family. I was so happy that he had gone to Chicago to be with them...
You know a Zemanta popup for this article revealed a young lady Leah...She used the name Bridie, wrote a historical short story, which includes a train... If she is a relative...congratulations! If she is not, it's an amazing coincident by which I can help honor the man, Robert Noonan, who loved children enough to spend his final years creating an historical account of the children who rode an orphan train to new lives. This proves that there are future writers named Noonan who will continue to share with the world...
Robert, who died February 2nd, I miss you and know I will one day see you again...
With much friendship love,
Glenda
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