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Books Celebrate Life With Grandparents Nurse's writings aim to preserve, enrich childhood memories By Hugh Leach Lansing State Journal January 19, 2004 ST. JOHNS - A lesson she learned as a hospice nurse helped Janet Sinke discover a new career as a children's book author. "When people approach the end of their lives, it isn't how much their car cost or how fancy their house was that they remember," said Sinke, 52. "It's the simple things." Simple things like the special relationships that exist between grandparents and grandchildren that evoke so many pleasant memories. Thoughts of the wonderful days she spent as a child with her grandmothers helped Sinke through the tough times after she learned four years ago that she had Parkinson's disease and was forced to step down as clinical supervisor for Hospice House of Mid-Michigan, a job she loved. Sinke, who has three - soon to be five - grandchildren of her own, combined those thoughts with a lifelong secret love of writing to produce a story told in rhyme from a grandchild's perspective. Others followed, and she has completed 15 of them. Although her previous writings had all been for her eyes only, she decided to see what others thought of them. One of the first people she contacted was friend Sandra Steffen of St. Johns, an author of contemporary fiction for women. "I knew right then she was on to something big," Steffen said. "I'm in that period between children and grandchildren, but I will have to buy 10 copies of her book for future grandchildren." Another was St. Johns High School English teacher Lorraine Kudwa. Although the stories are written for third- and fourth-graders, Kudwa tried them out on high school juniors. "They just loved the stories and the detail and could relate back to their own experiences with their grandparents," Kudwa said. Illustrator Craig Pennington "dropped in from heaven," Sinke said. One of Sinke's sons found Pennington working on a mural at a church in Williamston and recommended him. "I have always wanted to illustrate a children's book, and now that I have kids of my own, I think I am more mature to handle it and more emotionally involved than if I were a single artist working on it," Pennington said. Sinke, writing under the name Grandma Janet Mary, contacted several publishers, only to be told they were not taking on new authors. A representative from a publisher in Nashville, Tenn., however, commented, "My grandchildren would love it." Buoyed by the positive reactions she has received, Sinke set up her own company, My Grandma and Me, to publish her work. The first book, "I Wanna Go to Grandma's House," is being printed and will be available in February. Sinke said she has been aggressively marketing it even though it isn't yet available. She said there has been interest from 30 states, Canada and Australia as well as locally. Contact Hugh Leach at 377-1119 or [log in to unmask] Related Article: Schneider: Readers relish grandparent-grandchild bond http://www.lsj.com/columnists/schneider/040119_john_1b.html SOURCE: Lansing State Journal, MI http://www.lsj.com/news/local/040119_sinke_3b.html * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn