A Letter from Danielle for April ’26
Hello Everyone,
April is always a mixed and interesting month, with the promise of spring, sometimes a hint of warmer weather, and I once got caught in a huge snowstorm in New York on April 15. It’s hard to know what to expect in April. There is a French proverb that says, “Don’t put away even a thread of your winter clothes yet in April.” So there it is.
Until very recently, my April always began with a real bang on April First—April Fool! My very creative children came up with every possible story to fool me with, and I fell for it every year. I was usually deep in a book, having lost track of what day it was, and they would call from school or wherever they were and tell me some horror story I instantly believed . . . until finally, by the end of the day, I knew what day it was. It’s a huge relief that they have given up April Fools’!
We celebrated Easter every year, with an Easter brunch and Easter egg hunt. We dyed eggs (I had purple and green fingers for weeks after), and filled baskets with plastic grass and beautiful Easter eggs and jelly beans and chocolates and gave them to family and friends. We had a great time. And we still have Easter brunch together every year. Not everyone can make it home then, but as many as can get away from their jobs and daily lives do, and it’s wonderful to be together.
Easter is a time of serious religious holidays—Easter and Passover. And even if you’re not religious, I love the spirit of Resurrection behind Easter. I think that resurrection is such an important reminder—washing the slate clean and starting new. One doesn’t have to be religious to believe that. We all hit hard times; things happen that we don’t expect, which mark us deeply—the loss of someone we love, family or friend, a huge disappointment, a heartbreak, a business failure, loss of a job, a broken relationship with a dear friend, a betrayal, a blow you didn’t expect or deserve, or even the loss of a beloved pet. The whole concept of resurrection is to be “renewed,” to feel your spirits lift again, and find the courage and energy to start fresh, to rise again, to try again, to face life again with a lighter heart. We all get knocked down sometimes, and sometimes a whole string of unhappy events happen, and we lose faith that life will ever be happy again. The whole notion of resurrection is of rising from grief or disappointment and sorrow and starting brand new again. I love that idea of being freed from our mistakes or disappointments and starting brand new with a clean slate. April always makes me take stock and reminds me that we can start fresh and find our wings again. I love that! I hope you have a moment of that in April and you feel renewed and strong again, as though you can fly and leave the pains of the past behind.
There is some of that feeling in my book, A Mother’s Love, that came out in paperback on March 31. A woman’s handbag is stolen while she’s traveling, and it leaves her feeling shocked and victimized, vulnerable and frightened, without passport, money, ID, and all the little familiar things women carry in their purses—photographs, keys, whatever. It makes one feel that part of you was stolen. In the book, it awakens memories of abuse in her past as a child, and the memories of the past haunt her, and she has to confront them to go forward. When she faces the past, she is even stronger than before. It is amazing how abuses that happen years ago, even in our childhood, can follow us for years and mark how we react to current situations and make us feel childlike and vulnerable again. And when we face the ghosts of the past, healing comes at last. I hope the book resonates for you and you love the book.
And on April 21, my new hardcover comes out, A Woman’s Place. I loved writing the book. A young woman who is loved and protected by her elderly widowed father loses him; they are part of England’s aristocracy and nobility in the early 1900s. Before he died, he entrusted his daughter to a close friend of his, a powerful industrialist in England. She marries him and is shunned by everyone in high society London; an industrialist is not welcome in society in the social practices of the day. She is fascinated by his factories and textile mills. He teaches her all about his business, and all of her early friends and world are lost to her. When tragedy strikes again and she loses him, much to her amazement he has left her his entire business—factories, mills, etc.—and she struggles to take her place and accept the responsibility he left her—which is unheard of at the time. She must struggle for everything he left her, deal with violent unions and disapproving factory workers. She is alone in a man’s world. She is a young woman of enormous strength, and the struggles she endures and the fights she has with many factions make her even stronger as a woman alone in a man’s world, determined to live up to the legacy she was left. It’s about facing adversity, holding your ground, and fighting for what’s right, no matter how alone you are. So many women have had similar battles and struggles in today’s world, fighting for justice in the workplace among people who want to beat them down and keep them out of a man’s world. The young woman in the book is a woman of amazing strength and courage, with an extraordinary spirit, willing to stand alone among hostile forces to win her rightful place in a man’s world. That battle is still being fought today by courageous women who have made this a better world for others and have been willing to risk everything for the good of others. It’s a powerful story, and I hope you love it. It’s a tribute to the strength of the human spirit and brave women who led the way for others who have benefited us all.
I hope you find time to read it! I hope you’ll enjoy both books. Have a great month of April, and remember, don’t put your winter clothes away just yet!
Love,
Danielle