Here is the final installment of Chapter One from the Wind at my Back novel entitled "Leaving Home".

Here is the second installment of Chapter One from the Wind at my Back novel entitled "Leaving Home".

“Much of the future health and happiness of mother and baby is due to the care she receives; therefore, ever since the founding of the IDEAL MATERNITY HOME in 1928, its management has put forth great effort to meet every need for the comfort and protection of its patrons to make it truly ‘IDEAL’.” ~ Ideal Maternity Home brochure, circa 1943

Not too long ago, we revealed the sources of inspiration that led to the production of the award-winning series, Wind at My Back.  One of these sources was the memoirs of Canadian writer Max Braithwaite, who wrote about his time growing up in a Canadian family during the first quarter of the 20th century.

If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

Wind at My Back fans have often wondered what first inspired Kevin Sullivan to dream up the award-winning series.  The answer is a combination of inspirational and historic resources – namely, the history of his own relatives that lived during the Great Depression, in addition to literature that reflected this time period.  One primary example is author Max Braithwaite’s first of three autobiographical novels, Never Sleep Three in a Bed.

Sometimes when the boy was troubled he would go
To a little cave of stone above the brook
And build a fire just big enough to glow
Upon the ledge outside, then sit and look.

Humbly I asked of God to give me joy,
To crown my life with blossoms of delight;
I pled for happiness without alloy,
Desiring that my pathway should be bright;

“Family faces are magic mirrors.  Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present and future.” - Gail Lumet Buckley

This inspiring quote comes from the daughter of Hollywood’s first black star, Lena Horne, and the once-wife of famous film director Sidney Lumet.

W. H. Auden is considered one of the 20th century’s greatest writers.  The Anglo-American’s early poetic works, which were inspired by themes of love, politics and religion, were written in the time period of the Great Depression – the age in which members of the Bailey family struggled to form their own personal relationships.  Here is one of his more witty romantic poems: