GUIDEPOSTS (^) | August 2019 51
A
re you okay?” i asked my
friend Sara as we walked to
our table in Great China, our
favorite restaurant.
“I’m just a little out of breath,” she
said, sitting slowly. Eight years older
than me, at 78, Sara suffered from con-
gestive heart failure. Rheumatic fever
had damaged her heart as a child, and
her symptoms seemed worse lately.
We’d started as neighbors 20 years
earlier, in 1994, when I moved into a
house on her cul de sac. Sara was long
divorced, while my husband had his
work to keep him busy. With our chil-
dren grown, Sara and I had time to
indulge ourselves. We bonded over
home-baked goods—her favorite was
my lemon cake—and international cui-
sine. We had been there for each other,
steadfast, through good times and bad.
“Honestly,” Sara said, “I wish I had
some kind of hobby, something to keep
me occupied. Ever since I retired from
my medical practice, the days have
been feeling empty.”
“What about knitting?” I said. She
shook her head. “Gardening?”She laughed. “I don’t think I’m up to
that now.”
“We’ll think of something,” I told her,
although I had no idea what.
That night and every night thereaf-
ter, I prayed long and hard about what
I could do to help Sara. She had helped
me through so much over the years, in-
cluding the loss of my job and my own
health problems.
A few weeks later, a message from
the Lord came through loud and clear,
and it was both surprising and grati-
fying. I had dabbled in writing poetry
and short stories, but only God knew
my secret dream: to write a mystery. I’d
never breathed a word about it to any-
one else. Not my husband. Not Sara,
though both of us were avid mystery
readers. Our favorite authors were Ag-
atha Christie and Elizabeth George. I
didn’t talk about writing my own mys-
tery because I didn’t remotely have the
confidence that I could ever do it. Yet
here was God telling me to write one
with Sara.
The next time Sara and I met for
lunch, I got my courage up to ask,
“Would you be interested in writing a
mystery with me?”
Her eyes sparkled. “Why, yes, I thinkBY GERI CHRISTENSEN, Provo, UtahSPIRITUAL NOTEBOOKWHODUNIT? Geri at home, inspired to
write another mystery‘‘