Chapter 5

TEN YEARS LATER

Our beautiful daughter Mia was conceived the first weekend I was released. I told Terry when she found out she was pregnant for the first time that I would give up my work in the lab and devote my life solely to looking after her and our family, they would be my life’s work. I became Terry’s personal assistant. It was a logical move, I was good with fine details, with logging results, scheduling meetings and lectures, keeping her diary up to the mark, yet shielding her from the excessive demands of those around her who might otherwise seek to exploit her.

I helped her with her research, checking details, consulting other experts on her behalf while tracking down and obtaining permissions to include photographs of artefacts and confirmations of opinions on supporting areas of expertise. I researched images for inclusion in her latest books. I proof read them, correlated references and footnotes, suggested alternative wording and order of setting out the information to the extent that Terry insisted these researches were now collaborations and the next book was therefore co-authored.

That first effort, “Shining Light on The Dark”, a popular history of the medieval period, was a best seller acclaimed both academically and by popular demand. The framework of that book had already been penned by Terry, then during her pregnancy confinement and Mia’s first year, we filled it out with references and illustrations and included contributed supporting arguments from the leading experts in the field. The hardback was published in October and reprinted three times before Christmas to satisfy demand. The paperback scheduled for the following year was rushed through before mid-December and was immediately stripped from the shelves.