This week I’m hosting Anne Greene with Holly Garden, PI, Red Is For Rookie (US only), Cindy K. Green with Andrea and the 5-Day Challenge (US only), and Kristen Ethridge with Second Chance Sweethearts (ebook world wide). If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on your post with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (July 12th) evening.
Interview with the heroine from Second Chance Sweethearts by Kristen Ethridge
1. Gloria Garcia Rodriguez, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I think the most interesting thing about me is that I’m a midwife. I’ve attended more than a thousand births in my career—at hospitals, in birth centers, and even at home. I love getting to be there for a baby’s first moments in the world—those moments are so special.
2. What do you do for fun?
Living in Port Provident, I like to go to the beach. My job and my life can be stressful at times. I like to put my toes in the sand, watch the waves roll in, and read a good book. It helps me zone out a bit, which I really need at times. I’m so glad I live on an island and have the beach near me.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Moving on. After my husband and my son died, I didn’t have the heart to make changes in my life. My home looks the same way it did when I walked out the door to go to the hospital to have my baby. Neither my husband nor my baby ever walked back in the door of that house, and I’ve never had the heart to change anything. It looks like they could walk back in at any minute.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Having to depend on others. I’ve lost a lot of the most important people I loved. It’s easier now if I just focus on me and depend on myself and keep everyone else at arm’s length. Of course, I don’t want anyone to find out that I keep them at arm’s length—so it’s a balancing act.
5. What do you want out of life?
Most days, I just want to get through. I like to help the families I work with and I love my family and my niece. But most of the time, being around all these babies reminds me of what I’ve lost. So I just keep going forward, doing what I need to do.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
Loyalty is very important to me. I have a close family and grew up in a close-knit community. My husband was a police officer, and I believe strongly in the concept of taking care of others.
7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
I read the Bible, but honestly not as much as I used to. Since my husband and son died, I have a hard time believing God hears me, so we’re not as close as we were. If you were to find me on the beach today, I’d probably be reading a magazine like People. When I go to the beach, I usually go to forget and escape and relax for a few minutes.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Gosh, that one is hard. I wish I could change how I’ve grown apart from God. I wish I could trust that He has my best interests at heart anymore, but I lost my husband and my son in one night and I just don’t know how that could happen if God was who I was raised to believe He was.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
No, I don’t have a pet. I have pretty erratic hours—babies come when they want to come!—so I think it would be hard for me to have a pet.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
I’d go back to the night my son died and hold him one more time and tell him I loved him.
