TOM COMERFORD. I was in shock, depressed, and lost after the death of my mother. Tom was a District Manager for the State of New Jersey’s Division of Youth & Family Services. He hired me to provide payments to all the foster care parents in the huge district. He helped me get back on my feet mentally, emotionally, and financially; and that job led to meeting my best friend who has been in my life for 37 years.
Years later, I learned that he fell in love with my mother and asked her to marry him when he was a Catholic priest working beside her on an innovative community project. They were pioneers in race relations through Operation Understanding: a program that worked with churches to place inner city kids in suburban family homes and vice versa. It fostered some really amazing life-long friendships, and more!
Rachel Ward and Richard Chamberlain in “The Thorn Birds” (Credit: ABC)
Her answer was “No”, and eventually, he left the priesthood, married a former nun, and had his own family. Tom passed away a number of years ago. Funny thing is, he was always my favorite priest, and if things had gone his way, he would have been my stepfather. As it turned out, mom married an Episcopal minister.
This is a short story that could lead to multiple stories from different perspectives about these relationships. And so it goes. Cheers!
Read more about this best practice of using past and current life experiences as storytelling content to attract and engage your audience, readers, clients, and customers.
Valerie
“Things are only impossible until they’re not.”
“Make it so.”
~ Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation
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Valerie Mich’El Oliver explores the art and architecture of creativity and storytelling in imaginative, innovative, playful and award-winning ways. Tisch School of the Arts (New York University) and The Mystery School (Sacred Center for the Healing Arts) graduate. | Imagine, innovate, create, be generous, love this life, and dare to shine.
The Pursuit Studio 
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