As Always, Jack

Subject: As Always, Jack Fri 06 Jul 2007, 10:49 pm

Excerpts may be found at Google Books and reader reviews elsewhere on the Web, but I thought I'd mention, 'As Always, Jack: A Wartime Love Story,' by Emma Sweeney. It is a bittersweet story of a California girl's search for her Texas dad. John Milton (Jack) Sweeney was a Navy pilot, born in Ladonia (Fannin County), raised in Breckenridge (Stephens County) married in Coronado, California, and lost forever with his plane and crew of ten over the Bermuda Triangle, in 1956. His grandfather, John Milton Nunn, had built Bonham's (Fannin County) first brick home in 1871.

Jack's daughter, Emma, never had the chance to meet her father, as her mother was carrying her -- in the early stages of pregnancy -- at the time of his death. Later, her mother remarried and life went on. But following her mother's own passing, Emma discovered a cache of letters, tied with a faded ribbon, which her dad had written to her mom prior to her birth. There, she learned that Jack Sweeney had been aware of her tiny existence as he flew off on that ill-fated flight in the fall of 1956. He had anticipated her arrival (a girl, perhaps?) after a train of tow-headed boys, and reached out across the years to the daughter who shared his large eyes and warm smile.

I was lucky to find a copy of this petite book not long ago in a second-hand store. Being compact and involving, it would make for a good beach read .... a place where sand and moisture are both in the mix of things.

Holly

http://books.google.com/books?id=eCPM5SMhi14C&dq=%22as+always+jack%22+sweeney&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=qipw89zmnB&sig=2nEv7lew0RMF7k5IS052AjrzP_g#PPA4,M1
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The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves