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This photograph of
John and his grandmother, looking at THE GOLDEN RING, was taken by
Steve Bittner of the Cumberland News-Times the day John first
showed his grandmother the finished copy of his book. She passed away
several days after this photograph was taken and was buried the day
before the article ran in the newspaper.

MEYERSDALE,
PA (the setting for the story) in the early 1900s.

My Grandmother
Anna Lucile (Beal) Snyder
1910

This
photo is of Elda Beal, my great-grandmother, taken in the early 1900s
in front of her home on North Street, where the story took place. It
was given to me at a book signing by a little old lady who disappeared
before I could
find out her name.

This
is my cat Toby, whose fondness for me is somewhat less than my fondness
for him. To ingratiate myself, I wrote him into the book as a
character. It didn’t work!
He still doesn’t like me.
Maybe I should get a dog!
P.S.
Sadly, Toby has since passed away

To
cheer me up, my oldest daughter and her husband got me this surprise
... a Boxer puppy. We named him Max. You can read about him in my next
book.

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