Tiffany's Welcome
I wrote this book for my grandmother. Twice. I started Draft One in August 2003, shortly after she was diagnosed with cancer. I started this version, the one you’ll read, in August 2005 as I sat at her deathbed.
In her final days, Granny and I laughed and joked a lot about how I used to write imaginative stories when I was a child. How, when I was only 5-years-old, I penned plays and made her act them out with me. “You were something else, Tiff,” she kept telling me. Then she said, “Tell me about this book.”
I was disappointed in myself for not getting my act together before having to say good-bye to her. I had notebooks and computer disks full of stories and ideas, but not a single completed project. I had intended this book to be a tribute to her, but she would never get the chance to read it. Just as I started to get a little angry with myself, she let me know that she wasn’t disappointed in me, not in the least.
“I’m proud of you,” she said. “You’re going to have a beautiful life, and one day your name will be in lights.” But, as she told me, my life was a little out of order. “You have to put God first, Tiff.”
She said that over and over her final week. “Put God first, ask for his guidance, and then go after your dreams.”
I remained hard-headed a few more months after she died. I had to take a few beatings, but I’ve finally gotten myself together. I’ve put God first, I’ve been praying for guidance. And as for my dream: Here it is.
