Happy Life Plan: Day 9/100
Note to self: I don’t even know how to start processing the grief.
Today, this is the best I can do for my happy life plan post. It’s all I’ve got.
In 2015, I had this little idea. I wanted to teach my method of writing a novel. And when I tried, it took off. People wanted to learn what I was teaching.
I couldn’t start this thing on my own, though. It was too much. Too big. So I reached out to a young man I’d met at a writer’s conference a couple of years before. He’d come to my house for NaNoWriMo kick-off parties and hung out during writers nights out.
Zach Payne was my assistant, from day one of Ninja Writers. Without him, our community wouldn’t exist. He made sure my ADHD brain didn’t go off the rails. His ideas were amazing. And he was the best sounding board.
He was so much more than that, though.
A couple of years later, he moved in with my family. He lived with us for five years. Zach was the same age as my older two children. My youngest daughter grew up with him. For me, he became one of my kids.
He was part of our family.
When he moved back to California, to be with his mother, I was happy for both of them. But also strangely lost.
