Deb became a mother at seventeen. Years later, during what she now calls the “summer of ’98,” her world changed again. The day before her fortieth birthday, she buried her mother. Two weeks later, her 22-year marriage ended. With one daughter newly married and the other preparing to leave for college, almost everything that had defined her life seemed to be changing at once.

She rebuilt slowly—through faith, relationships, difficult decisions, and a willingness to keep moving forward even when she could not see exactly where the road would lead.

Eventually, that willingness took her farther than she expected. When a friend invited her to attend a wedding in Singapore, Deb’s first instinct was all the practical reasons not to go. Then she made a different choice: I am the kind of woman who does that.

She went!

That small sentence became symbolic of something much bigger: we are not limited to the person we have been, the choices we have already made, or the chapter we are living in.

Today, Deb combines professional expertise with the perspective of someone who has had to rewrite her own future more than once. She is a coach and mentor, a former GriefShare leader, a mother of two daughters, and grandmother of six.

She lives in Ohio with her husband, Jeff. When she is not writing or mentoring, she can usually be found reading her book club’s latest historical fiction, spending time with family and friends, or planning her next trip.