Carolyn DiPaoloFlorida author urges readers to make the most of the years between middle age and ‘old.’
Fawn Germer has a message for all of us: Don’t wait.
What’s happening: The Florida-based writer has a new book that traces her 10,000-mile van trip with her dog, Sonny.
- Germer is speaking this week at the Palm Beach County library west of Boynton Beach.
“I was having a hard time getting out of middle age,” said Germer, who is 63. “And it was partly because I was confronted with so much loss.”
Backstory: Eight of Germer’s friends in their 50s and 60s died in 2023. “There was not one person in that group who thought they were going to die that year,” she said.
- And Germer wasn’t ready to be “old.”
Friction point: After months of meticulous planning for her road trip, Germer said, the most challenging thing was to pull out of the driveway.
- “We can talk ourselves out of anything,” she said.
Yes, but: Germer is no shrinking violet. She was a reporter in the Miami Herald’s former West Palm Beach bureau before she became a professional speaker and the author of 10 books.
“Here Comes the Sun” is the story of Germer finding an optimistic path forward.
- “I want to die with my hiking boots on,” she writes. “I want to live and live and live.”
If you go: Germer’s appearance is part of the library’s Storytellers Collective series. She speaks at 1:30 pm Wednesday at the West Boynton Branch at 9451 Jog Road. The talk is free. Register here.
