Dotsie— Sorry I missed your posting before I pressed "Add Reply."

I agree that timing IS everything. The phrase has become a cliché, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Not only Jean Karotkin, but every late-blooming woman I interviewed would concur.

For those of you who haven’t read my book, here’s an excerpt on this very topic. It’s from my journal, tidbits of which I weave in between the stories of the women:

“I recently read that Native American author Beth Brant was driving somewhere before her fortieth birthday when a bald eagle flew in front of her car and told her she was supposed to be a writer. She changed the direction of her life and stepped back on the gas. For most of us the signposts are much more subtle. More often than not, I suspect, one misses them altogether.

“That said, several of the women I’ve interviewed—Linda Bach, Jean Kelley, Jo Fuchs Luscombe and Patricia Symonds—were similarly approached by a casual acquaintance who innocently uttered a few words and altered the trajectory of their lives.

“Here’s what I wonder. Were these four women—five, including Beth Brant—approached at the precise moment they were prepared to take their respective leaps? If they had heard these words of encouragement a month earlier, would they have been able to respond? Or would the words have been dismissed as pure folly? In my case, I think it’s very possible that I wouldn’t be writing this particular book if I had read about Wini Yunker even one day before I did" (111).