Visit with Sara Lewis Holmes

For our third and final Memorial Day Weekend post, we're visiting with author Sara Lewis Holmes.



www.saralewisholmes.com

www.operationyesbook.com

Sara's newest middle grade novel, OPERATION YES, was released by Arthur A. Levine Books in September 2009.



No one in her sixth-grade class knows quite what to make of Ms. Loupe, with her short hair, her taped square "stage" on the floor, and the interest in improvisational theatre. After all, their school is on an Air Force base--a place that values discipline more than improv. But her students soon come to love her fresh approach; and when her dear brother goes missing in Afghanistan, and Ms. Loupe herself breaks down, they band together to support their teacher. What starts as a class fundraiser expands into a nationwide effort for all injured troops, and an amazing vision of community and hope.

My daughter still has the scrap of paper---the one the school counselor handed her in class on Sept. 11, 2001. There are four words on it: Your dad is okay.

And he was. He had been inside the Pentagon when the attacks happened, but was fortunate to be on the opposite side of the building. For a few long hours, we didn't know that. My daughter certainly didn't. Unlike my son, who was in elementary school under an information lockdown, she was in a combination middle school/high school building where the news spread as fast as the accompanying rumors, teachers and students talking and talking and talking about what was going on just 15 miles from their classroom. Meanwhile, I was in the basement of our home, listening to reports that yet another hijacked flight was in the air and wondering if it would come down to hit the Pentagon again, or another D.C. government target.

After two hours, I was finally able to talk to my husband on the phone (cell lines were so jammed that he hadn't been able to get through.) Then I called my daughter's school and begged the counselor to run a message to my seventh-grade daughter: Your dad is okay.

My daughter later wrote about the day for the Kids Washington Post Page. My son wrote about it for his college application essay seven years later. He opened that essay with this line: "I wanted to tie him to a chair." He went on to say that this was the only way he could think of to stop his dad from heading back to the Pentagon, a building which was still, in parts, on fire the day after the Sept. 11 attacks. My son wrote that it had taken him all those seven years to understand why his dad went back, and what "giving your all" meant.

In the end, my children's dad was safe and came home to us. My daughter slipped the reassuring note into a keepsake box. My son found a way to work through his confusion and anger. For them, the truth was: Your dad is okay.

But they both know that not all moms and dads come home.

It's a hard thing, but today, someone's parent will not return from Afghanistan or Irag or from a training mission. That's been a fact of every war since conflict began dividing the human race. Soldiers are parents. Soldiers are brothers and sisters. Soldiers are sons and daughters. And each time, we lose a military member, it leaves a hole in a family and a community.

In my book OPERATION YES, I write about military families and what it's like to be part of one. The book is not about death, but about life. About saying yes to what you believe in. About recognizing that we are all fighting battles of one sort or another.

OPERATION YES is also about improvisational theater. (I was a theater geek in high school.) I chose that creative angle because we all make plans---yes, military families make lots and lots of plans for every move and every deployment and every contingency --- but life forces us to improvise as we go along, and military families more than most.

Despite worry and constant change, military families weave themselves into the communities in which they find themselves. They volunteer; they work; they play sports and join drama clubs and play in the band; they make friends as quickly and as often as they can. Some schools have even set up student-led clubs to help military kids fit in quickly. They're called Student2Student, and you can find out more here, at the Military Child Education Coalition blog.

I know Memorial Day is about remembering those who served their country and gave their lives. But I'm going to be remembering their families, and the families of all service members, too. I hope you can lay a wreath or pause near a flag or say a prayer if you want to. But you could also say hello to that new kid. Ask about his military mom or dad or brother or sister. Find out about Fisher Houses for those whose loved ones come home wounded and T.A.P.S. for those whose loved ones don't come home at all.

You can't send a note to those who've died in service to their country. But you can send a message, both to those who’ve “given their all” and to those still on duty: Your family will be okay.

**Thanks so Sara for such a touching post about what Memorial Day really means! Please feel free to leave your own comments, questions, or observations in the comments section today. She'll be granting one lucky poster an audibook of OPERATION YES from Audible.com, so post away!

Also be sure to visit either of Sara's websites listed above, or you can find her at her Blog, on Twitter either here or here, or email her directly at email@saralewisholmes.com.

And check out the Audie Award winning audiobook from www.Audible.com (Listen to a free excerpt on the site.)

And...last but not least!...get the OPERATION YES Teachers' guide with improv activities available as a free download.