Real life stories that would make great films, novels,

How about the mother of the woman my daughter worked for when she was an au pair in France?

This woman was diabetic and the manner of treating that illness in the 30s and 40s wasn't reliable. She had a sweetheart but her family didn't want her to marry because she was going to die young. The war started and took her boyfriend away. After the end of the war, her parents literally said, "Well, you're still alive. If you want to marry, it would be alright." She did marry and had two daughters but there was never the spark that there was with her first love. She and her husband eventually divorced.

Many years later, while visiting her aged mother in her home town, she picked up the phone book to see whether he had survived the war. His name was listed in the book. She called. He had never married. They finally married each other and were happy ever after.

That's a novel.

Also a TV series, pretty much; "As Time Goes By." (A good TV series, though...)

Definitely an interesting story though.

"As Time Goes By" is one of my all time favorites. I watched the reruns again and again. Did you know the original title was to have been something like, "Flowers in Winter?" The problem was they couldn't come up with a theme for the title! I'd love to find my own Lionel. I also loved the way the quirks of all of the characters -- Jean's baths, Lionel's cream tarts -- kept coming up in the show. And Jean's kitchen!

Another story, also involving a Franco-American romance.

A friend of mine was one of three children, the sons and daughter of a Russian emigre who became an imminent professor and a rather famous but not necessarily "top drawer" American university.

He married a woman his family laughed at for being such a mousy thing.
The mouse, however, supported him while he wrote his dissertation and she earned an undergraduate degree then a M.L.S. and raised the kids.

His kids were all very bright and should have gone to small liberal arts colleges but he insisted they attend his large state university.

One of the boys was accepted to medical school but, the father did something (probably browbeat him) that prevented him from going. The son joined the Peace Corps and went off to West Africa where he met a beautiful and titled young French woman.

They fell in love. When her job ended (not sure why), she returned to France, intending to marry her boyfriend when he was done with his volunteer work. They wrote. Her mother, upset that her daughter fell in love with an American, destroyed all of his letters. Finally, the young woman wrote a "dear john" to her American sweetheart, who was by now back in his native land, studying for a public health administration degree.

The American boy married a law student. The young countess married a French businessman. The Americans had a son, the French couple had two children, then divorced.

The American lawyer began having affairs that her husband never knew about. The French businessman missed his wife and persuaded her to return to him. They remarried, this time in church to strengthen the union that had merely been sealed with a civil ceremony before. They had a third child as a pledge of longevity (sp?).

The former Peace Corps volunteer became a professor at a famous American university and his father said, "well, your university is better than mine. You surpassed me."

Then the American professor attended an international health care conference in Paris. After one session, he walked out into the Paris sunshine and there on the street was the brother of his lost countess. Of course, he asked about the woman.

They met. Their love was re-ignited. The American wife was actually relieved: she knew her affairs were a sign of something wrong. She continued to practice law but gave up the power suits and the French twist, took down her hair and began wearing slacks.

While I have lost track of the family (the father had messed all of them up), it is a grand story.

Let's hope there will be no more JonBenet and John Mark Karr stories. Enough.