-“ Conversations about Life, Love, and Laughter,” which now includes new updates throughout, honoring my 9 MOMS.
The Special Edition From My Mama’ s Kitchen ® book won the 2025 International Impact Book Awards in the categories of Inspirational- Stories of Kindness and Humanity, and Personal Growth and Development- Emotional Intelligence and Resilience. At their Hollywood Gala, I also received a certificate of appreciation for being a finalist for the 2025 International Impact Author of the Year Award in the Non-Fiction- Self-Help for Relationships & Communication category.
Next, another surprise gift came from a dear friend, Teresa Velardi, the publisher of the bestselling anthology A Daily Gift Book series. She invited me to contribute stories to her books, A Daily Gift of Peace and A Daily Gift of Friendship, the latest two in a five-book series released in September and November, respectively.
Despite all the fantastic and joyful news, as I mentioned earlier about my roller coaster year, I had an accident in March that totaled my two-year-old SUV. Although I hit the other car, and thank goodness no one was hurt, it wasn’ t my fault— everyone agreed on that: the driver of the other vehicle, the police report, and both insurance companies. However, since this was my first auto accident, it affected me psychologically. Colliding with another vehicle caused a personal traumatic experience for a few days, which was made worse by the back-and-forth with the other driver’ s insurance company, which took a week to review the facts and finish the paperwork to make the proper compensation offer. In the end, I was able to buy a new SUV without any out-of-pocket expenses. I now view the whole experience as a lesson I needed to learn so that
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