In January of 1999, during a very cold and dark Minnesota winter, I sat down and wrote my memoirs, Did I Ever Thank You, Sister? in about 6 days. It was a phone call from a newspaper reporter from Joliet, Illinois in November of 1997 that really got this whole thing started.

I wasn’t intending on writing a book when I started out. I just wanted to write a story that I thought needed to be told, maybe for a little redemption or just maybe to help me reconstruct what really happened in my life so I could go on.

During the course of my journey back in time, I experienced a lot of intense emotions as the memories began to unfold in front of me. Some of them were good feelings,while others were not. I had to really take a hard look at what happened. As a result of this experience, I made some profound discoveries of events and people who have impacted my entire life, many of which I never understood until now.

I discovered that despite my difficult childhood and young adult life there were always good people who reached out to me and helped me through it and for that, I am grateful.

I encourage you to look back on your life and remember the people who have helped you. If you can, find them and thank them.

I’ve created a Facebook page as a place where you can go to thank them. Even if you don’t post, please try and thank them. It will change you.

-Sal Di Leo