OMAHA, Neb. — A man in Omaha, Nebraska, has made his mother's dream of becoming an author come true years after her death and 25 years after she started the book.
Patrick Sechser was only 16 years old when his mother, Maureen, died. She had lupus and was 46 years old.
Nearly two decades later, Sechser opened up a bin. He finally began to read a manuscript his mother had written.
"In the way that serendipity works, a week and a half later my father showed up and handed me that purple binder," Sechser said, pointing to a binder.
In that binder was another manuscript.
"It's like fate happened and I knew, life is telling me what I should do," he said.
Sechser started putting the two versions together to complete his mom's book. He even found a cover letter his mother had written to a publishing company in 1996. In November 2020, the book, "The Piano Lessons," was published.
"We wrote a book together, some 25 years apart, but we did it together," said Sechser.
The book has a character named Patrick and other nods to his mother who grew up in Omaha and attended Duchesne Academy.
"For me growing up, my mother has been absent from my life just because of what happened, and I've had a lot of grief about that. But to be able to finally complete this, I have liberated myself as best as possible from that grief," he said.
You can find the book at the Bookworm, online or in person in Omaha, and other online sites as well.
Sechser said he plans to donate the money from book sales to the Lupus Foundation of America.
This story was first published by Jennifer Griswold at KMTV.
