The Sweet by and By (36 page)

grandbaby, I know that my love will outlive me. That might be all I need to know from now on.

Maybe we’ll all be together again Easter, I don’t know, a lot can happen between now and then. Come spring April’s yard will be full of tulips and daffodils, it always is and she don’t do one thing except add more bulbs year after year. She might have some hyacinth too, I hope she’ll bring some inside if she does cause those things are sweet perfume to me. I’ll try to make us a good ham if everybody can come and if I’m able. We’ll need a crowd to eat it. We’ll probably go to church, I know I’ll want to show off Taylor, and he won’t mind even if it’s nothin but a bunch of strangers to him and me both. He might have to do me a favor and go pick up Althea, but she’ll come as long as she can move one muscle. April will help me with anything I can’t do. It won’t be nothin fancy, just good food the way I learned to make it when I was young. We’ll eat ’til we’re full and we’ll talk all about this here trip and show pictures. April will have a bunch of pictures I know, she started takin em as soon as we got off the airplane. We’ll sit around the table while the light changes outside and tell so many stories that none of us is gon remember what exactly really happened, but it won’t matter to us, we ain’t gon argue over details.

A c know l e d g me nt s

Many thanks to my early readers and all those who shared sto- ries, hilarious and heartbreaking, of aging loved ones along the way, especially Sally Lloyd-Jones, Karen Braga, Todd Shuster, Christa Rypins, Eileen Lahart, and Nickole Kerner-Bobley. Spe- cial thanks go to my dear friend and muse Laura Grooms for unflagging support at every turn. And to Adriana Trigiani, who is surely the world’s greatest cheerleader, not to mention one of the most generous people I’ve ever met.

I would also like to thank my editor, Marjorie Braman, whose insight and passionate guidance were invaluable, and my agent, Wendy Sherman, whose enthusiasm was immediate and unwav- ering. I am fortunate to work with both of these extraordinary women.

Additional thanks for important kindnesses go to Gail Godwin, Judy Clain, Gray Coleman, Peggy Hageman, Christopher Little, Robin and Peter Ketchum, Liz and Jed Hogan for the respite of Doolittle, Louise and Bill Grooms for the creative haven of Fripp, my colleagues in the Broadway community, and my friends in France who pretended my grammar was fine. Finally, thanks to Michael for faith, as well as to Sue, Kenneth, and Troy Johnson, and all the Laharts and Flemings, who instinctively knew how to be encouraging without asking too many questions.

About the Author

T
ODD
J
OHNSON
was born and raised in North Carolina. Following a career as a teacher and studio singer in New York City, he received a Tony Award nomination as a producer of
The Color Purple
on Broadway. He studied history at UNC–Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree from Yale Divinity School. He lives in Connecticut. This is his first novel.

If
The Sweet By and By
prompts you to share a personal story, please write to [email protected].

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Credits

Jacket design by Laura Klynstra

Jacket photographs: dresses by Philip Salaverry/Jupiter Images; sky by Plainpicture/M. Wolff/Jupiter Images

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

THE SWEET BY AND BY
. Copyright © 2009 by Todd Johnson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader January 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-177090-6

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