I’d like to think that I brought the sun with me when I recently traveled to Washington state this January, well at least for a little while anyway. Seattle was my first destination, where I would hold a book signing event at Barnes and Noble in Northgate. The Pacific Northwest had been deluged with snow and for a brief interval during my 24 hour visit there had been some sun with intermittent rain, which made getting around much easier. I enjoyed a warm reception with a good sized turnout from the audience of grandparents and other interested parties.

   My purpose for scheduling a book signing event in Washington state was to help raise awareness about the lack of legislation on behalf of grandparent visitation. GRAND WISHES is the only current book on the shelves that addresses grandparent-grandchild visitation issues and Washington state is the only state without grandparent visitation laws. It was important for me to support all of the grandparents  there who are fighting for some much needed legislation. There is a group of grandparents, called G.R.O.W.S., who have formed a united front in pursuit of lobbying legislators on behalf of enacting statutes to protect the grandparent grandchild bond.  I couldn’t help noticing something unique and special about this group, which was that they had developed friendships with one another as a result of tragic circumstances that had originally brought them together. They had even become social as they gathered together at a nearby restaurant following the event, me included. We all need close friends to deal with stress, and truly that is the bright side of the issue, for these individuals would have never met had it not been for shared misfortune.

    The second leg of my trip took me to the Barnes & Nobel in Spokane, where I would finally meet my very best customer, Betty Tomlin, director of the Wa. state chapter of Grandparents For Children’s Rights Org. Betty ordered several books just so she could generously give them away to anyone she encountered who was experiencing grandparent visitation issues. This book signing event was more intimate and soon became more of a discussion group; Betty so graciously allowed me to videotape her as she shared her very own grandparent story. All in all both Barnes & Noble community coordinators did a terrific job hosting the events and the audiences were most appreciative for my visit.    My whirlwind trip took place in the span of a weekend with lots of airport time. There is no direct flight to Spokane, which meant a few trips back and forth to Seatac. Friday night, arrive in Seattle for Saturday book event, then back to the airport to catch an evening commuter flight to Spokane, spend the night in Spokane, arrive at B&N for Sunday event, then back to airport for commuter flight to Seattle thenhome to John Wayne airport. At that point, the sunshine was nowhere to be seen as the clouds moved in and the snow once again began to fall, needless to say I barely made it out of Seattle as we waited on the runway as the plane was de-iced.