by Barbara Fisher

Created on: May 16, 2008

"As I held little Matthew close to my breast, my heart just didn't seem able to contain all the love I was feeling. Time seemed to stop. So much love, so much perfection still unmarred by life's dilemmas.
But there was an ache in my heart too, knowing most likely I would never see my little grandson take his first steps, speak his first words. God, I begged, let me live long enough to let even the smallest fragment of my love live on inside this tiny heart.

The radio was playing softly in the background, oh . . . how timely even life's music is . . . Whitney Houston's beautiful voice went straight to my heart as she sang "And I will always love you . . . "
These are the words that start a chapter in the novel Stolen Moments.

This novel, Stolen Moments, is a love story inspired by two special people that fell in love too late in life. They were no one you would know, but there was a grand romance between them, an underlying passion and understanding that had taken the ultimate patience and endurance to develop. In this day and age, the unconditional love they felt for one another makes for a wonderful story, one that is all too rare and much too beautiful to let die without being told.

Like Romeo and Juliet or The Bridges of Madison County, however, all great love stories need tragedy and separation, as well as love, to fully touch the reader, and their story was no exception. Lupus became part of their lives during their too short time together and my most vivid memories are those of Don Lipton sitting by a bedside and taking Julie Hunter, the woman he loved to places they could only go in their minds. Seeing them this way might break many hearts, but never once did he bemoan his plight. In Don's mind and heart he knew that she was the young woman he fell in love with, and nothing would ever change that. This story is their story, a story of love, the most faithful love I've ever seen.

Stolen Moments is a tender contemporary novel, a love story written in lyric prose. Like most romance novels, Stolen Moments envelopes all that is special about the characters, their families, and friends, tradition, loyalty, kindness, love and remembrance. Yet this novel stands alone in two important ways. First, it is one of the few passionate stories written about two people who in spite of their passion and unending love, honor her marriage status. It is with great beauty and dignity that this couple restrains from committing adultery. It reveals a rare but dignified portrait of a couple struggling with the ultimate reality that her life will be ending soon. Even more importantly however, Stolen Moments is the first novel that describes the heart-wrenching effects of Lupus on two people who loved each other with all their hearts. The result is a moving eulogy to illness itself - a story of love that pretty much sums up the notable context of most people's lives.

Although there are some unhappy parts in this novel, there are numerous benefits for the reader. That love is something that can be found anywhere, anytime, and at any age is dominant throughout the entire book. The book portrays two people so in love who still chose to honor their morals, and still show the deepest feeling. Sometimes in life, others who happen to cross our paths at just the right time inspire us, They can change our lives forever.

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