Sandy and I have co-authored this book. The seeds for this memoir were planted during the pandemic. With both of us retired and in our seventies, we were in the demographic most at risk during those months. We had time on our hands. As we reminisced, we decided to write her autobiography. I became her ghost writer. Initially, it was written primarily for our families.
However, input from outside the family suggested that her story would make a good memoir. At first we weren't interested, but over time we warmed to the idea. Releasing Alexandra is the result. This is a story of self-discovery. Sandy was the product of a perfect storm of circumstances. She was genetically predisposed to be an overly anxious person with an innately shy nature. Her mother was loving but was also a no nonsense type person. All three of those things led her to suppress a lot of her childhood and adolescent emotions. Withdrawal became her coping mechanism. The result was that Sandy carried a lot of pent-up emotional baggage into her adulthood. We married very early and it was through me and my enlistment into the Air Force that the release of an heretofore unknown persona began. We named this free-spirited alter ego, Alexandra. Being away from home in the Air Force for five years, let Alexandra continue to emerge over time. We returned home with Alexandra a fully integrated part of who my beautiful wife had become. Enjoy the read!