Teresa: It is a true story of the power of friendship and faith. A novel written by a St. Louis woman is meant to make us laugh and
cry. The author, Marcia Putnam is with us this morning to talk about dealing with divorce, and cancer, and fear, and finding a way
somehow to laugh through it all—which is a good thing. Good Morning, how are you?
Marcia: Good Morning. I’m fine thank you.
Teresa:Your book is called Grace to Carry. It is your story. What inspired you to take your very private experiences and make them public
for all of us?
Marcia: Well it didn’t start out to be a public thing—a book to be published. I started writing shortly after
the death of my best friend as a way for me to heal. But not until I began the re-writes, the editing process did my healing begin.
Thanks to my editor, Candace Carrabus Rice, I was able to reach deep into how those emotions felt.
Teresa: Tell us about Grace
to Carry. Like I said, it’s your true story. You just mentioned the death of your best friend. What all happened? What were the things
that went on in your life that made you say I need to journal—I need to write these things down.
Marcia: Well, Grace to Carry
is a story certainly of our friendship and the bond we shared but also, and I think more importantly, it’s a story of how we learned
to trust one another, and of her faith, and the peace she found throughout her cancer.
Teresa: This is the cover of the book.
I was mentioning it’s a beautiful book. It’s the kind of book you could just picture sitting on someone’s nightstand. You mentioned
your friend’s battle, but that’s not all that happened in your life, right?
Marcia: That’s right.
Teresa: What went on
as well with your family?
Marcia: Just a few months prior to Joan’s death, my youngest son was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
And it really spoke to, I think, the commitment we had as friends. No matter what we had in our life, we had time for one another.
You know, and I think his illness really brought the gift of tears to her. She had really not cried until he was diagnosed. She broke
down and we cried together, and it released a lot of emotions she had built up inside.
Teresa: You talk about the gift of tears,
and I think sometimes people forget a good cry is healthy.
Marcia: A good cry is very healthy.
Teresa: But so is good laughter
and that I know is in your book as well.
Marcia: That’s right.
Teresa: Marcia, thank you so much for coming on. If
you’d like to meet Marcia or check out one of her upcoming book signings you can go to our website, Fox2now.com. The dates are also
on our screen. Jot those down—put them on your calendar. I think we can all, like I said, get a good laugh and a good cry. Marcia,
thank you.
Marcia: Thank you.