Vatican Waltz (25 page)

First thanks, as always, to Amanda for her unwavering support and warm love. For several reasons, this was a particularly difficult book to write, one that involved a number of major revisions over a period of years. These kinds of demolition and reconstruction projects are not easy on the author and not easy on the author's spouse. Amanda's consistent good humor and optimism buoyed me in those hours, days, and weeks when it seemed I would never be able to tell this story the way I wanted to.

A very special thank-you to Bonnie Smith, Deputy Commissioner, State of Maine, Department of Health and Human Services, for her generous help with information about a nurse's education and work. No one knows that life better than she does, and as a novelist herself, she was aware of the demands of characterization and plot and how the technical information needed to fit with them. She took time out of a busy work and family schedule to help me on a number of occasions. I could not ask for a better friend.

I should add that any and all errors here belong to me, not to her or any of my other friends, readers, and advisers.

A big thank-you, too, to Gino Mazzone, friend and master tour guide, whose knowledge of Rome and Vatican City exceeds that of any encyclopedia. Gino used a rest day to do what he does when working—show a curious foreigner around his beloved city and impart a small portion of his vast knowledge. To him and his lovely wife, Stacey, my gratitude.

My gratitude also to those Catholic priests who patiently answered my probing questions about Church doctrine but who wished to remain anonymous. They were gracious enough to discuss difficult matters with a persistent, if respectful, stranger, and I salute them for that.

Thanks also to: Marly Rusoff, Michael Radulescu, and Shaye Areheart for their warm support and help, and to Lynn Anderson for her thorough and careful copyediting, and her tolerance for my ungrammatical quirks and preferences; and to my fine editors at Crown: Kate Kennedy and Amanda Patten. Their insight and advice helped me see this story with clearer eyes.

And my gratitude to my Italian teacher, Simone Gugliotta, for her patience and kindness as I wrestle with the language I love.

Last but not least, thank you to my supportive friends Randy and Bonnie DeTrinis, who know the spiritual life so well and who live it so beautifully.