Upcoming Book

Excerpt from What Took You So Long?

I entered the world one Sunday afternoon in mid-February 1948, the firstborn child of an unwed fifteen-year-old. Her Catholic parents were surprised by my arrival. So, says my mother, was she. It was the age of secrets, and my mother’s family kept many. As a result, my grandmother hadn’t bothered to tell my mother the facts of life. When she and my grandfather saw my mother’s stomach swelling, they assumed she had been eating too much pasta. Imagine how shocked they were when I appeared!

As first-generation Italian immigrants, they were ashamed that their daughter had given birth out of wedlock. I’m told that when my mother asked to hold me, the nurse replied, “No, this baby’s going to be adopted.” And so I was. The family practice of omerta (Italian for a code of silence) began that day and continued for nearly fifty-seven years.

Completed Works

Books written by Libby J. Atwater after extensive interviews with the stories’ subjects

Titles                                       Family or Sponsor’s Name

If You Don’t Try, You Don’t Get  – – – Larry and Muriel Goodman

Still Serving  – – –Willa B. DeLay

My Life’s Journey with Special People  – – –Lloyd Jones

James D.Loebl  – – –Loebl Family

Forward Ever, Backward Never  – – –Burrell D. Plucknett

Life Is Good  – – –Gail Margaret Rink/Dana VanderMey

A Life Filled With Love and Luck and Laughter  – – –Dorothy H. Loebl

Love of Life and Rock ‘n’ Roll  – – –Don Zimmermann