Enter the world of Jillian Bradley and her Yorkie companion Teddy, where afternoon tea is served and murderers are brought to justice.
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| NANCY JILL THAMES, AUTHOR |
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"And the Whippoorwill Sang" is a deathbed promise I made to my
lost child. When she was struck down by a drunk driver, her spinal cord
severed, and left in a semi-coma for ten of the longest days of our
lives, I told her I would make sure the world knew who and what she was;
so that her death would not be in vain. As close as our large family
was, when Noelle died, we all went our separate ways, unable to comfort
each other. One of her sisters became bulimic and suicidal, a brother
raced cars to tempt God to take him as well, her other brother had to be
constantly
pulled back from going after the repeated offender drunk driver who
caused our world to dim without Noelle’s presence. Her oldest sister
could not handle our great sorrow and stayed away on her own, while her
youngest sister was plagued with anxiety and panic attacks at the age of
eleven. Her father did not speak her name for five years and barely
ever after that. As for me, I wrote. I could not speak or share so I
wrote. The short story of the book was published by Victimology; an
International Magazine. I wrote slice of life stories about her and all
the kids for my new local daily newspaper, which led to a career in
Journalism. I started the book about four years after her death, but
life stepped in and I had to put it aside for years. When I was able to
continue it, I realized the block when I came to the part before she
died. My kids, many of whom also had memory loss, helped as we forced
ourselves to remember—that and a deadline from my publisher finally got
the book done. 
By Caza
