When it was all said and done, I went to Marc’s book signing at Barnes & Noble to get my autographed copy of his completed work. Big smiles all around were in order, and it was a pleasure to finally meet his wife, Ginny, as well. They’re great people, and I’m honored to call them friends.
On a final note, and much to my surprise, just before the book went to press, Marc called to refresh his memory about an experience I told him about when we met for breakfast years earlier. He said the publisher wanted something “different,” other than his original epilogue submission.
I had gone on a “guy” vacation with my stepson and three brothers-in-law to Big Bend National Park in Texas. We hiked down into the Santa Elaina Canyon at the Rio Grande River one morning and I couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that, by the grace of God, I was born an American citizen and about 20 feet away on the other side of that dirty creek was “the mother country.”
In cutoff jeans and with my boots on I waded from the United States over to Mexico and had a quiet weeping on the other side, realizing fully how great America is and how, in so many ways, Mexico isn’t. I had never been to Mexico prior to that event, and haven’t been there since.
I shared that lone experience with Marc the first time we met over breakfast, and that story is how he chose to punctuate the book’s epilogue.
It’s a good thing I read the op-ed in the paper that day.
Joe Soliz is our ground reporter in Davenport, Iowa. He is a service manager, motive power equipment, for Hubill, which is a manufacturer’s rep for battery and charger backup systems and fork trucks.
Soliz, 58, is a lifelong resident of the Illinois Quad Cities area, and has been a guitar player and singer for 40+ years. A voracious reader and an avid bass fisherman, Soliz calls himself a “wannabe” writer with a passion for subject involving politics, history, religion, business and war stories. He also has a son and a daughter, and has been sober for more than 14 years.