I think it's made me aware of other people and being more sensitive to their feelings. If her debut effort seems to flow directly from her heart into ours, it's because Hedley has been there. She had some learning to do, too, when her third child and first daughter, LilyClaire, was born with the short-limb syndrome achondroplasia. To flex her work muscles, she started writing on the side. That's the puzzling part.
Achondroplasia is a complete genetic anomaly.
It happens as an accident, much like Down syndrome. I had all sorts of things to come to terms with. Some parents never do. Connecticut inn night watchman Bob Heinemann, whom Hedley met when he was hitchhiking, was abandoned by his well-off mother as a child some 40 years ago. That can be hard to come by when you face other adults' stomachs.