Jennie Nash

"We were thrilled to have Jennie as our keynote speaker. She is so heartwarming, as both a writer and a speaker. She made us laugh, cry, and inspired us all to tell our stories." -- Susan G. Komen Foundation, Austin Affiliate

"Our event with Jennie was a smashing success. She was even better than I imagined she would be. She took a most serious subject and gave it human-ness, and humor. She was incredibly inspiring." -- Barbara Paget, chair, Dr. Arthur Michel Memorial Lecture Series, Evanston Northwestern Hospital, Chicago.

My favorite letter from a reader, who read The Last Beach Bungalow in her home on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia:

Dear Jennie-
I LOVED your book! IIt touched me in so many ways. I want to tell you how I found my own beach house. My husband and I were happy in a beautiful house and we had jobs that we loved (I was an English teacher for twenty-eight years). During vacations we would drive to the beach and stay in a place called "The Honeymoon Cottage" which was set off by itself on a beach surrounded by nothing but sand dunes. For years we would walk the neighborhoods, wistfully, noticing that none of the beach houses were ever for sale. One particular winding path, overgrown with trees and vines was our favorite, and one day we stopped to talk to a woman who was gardening in the small sandy yard of her beach house. She confirmed that houses rarely came up for sale, that "people came and stayed." Years later on a Sunday we drove past her house and it was for sale--and there was an open house. We wrote up a contract in ten minutes and on the drive home realized that we lived and worked three hours away...and we had to find a way to pay for it!

We retired and moved into it as soon as we could. Every day it makes me happy. The house, with its glass and light and crow's nest, is an expression of me. And shortly after moving in, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The morning before surgery I walked the beach at sunrise and was greeted by a family of dolphins jumping and playing right in front of me. The morning before my first chemo treatment, a flock of pelicans glided gently over my head as I walked the beach. And before the first radiation treatment, the dolphins came back. I felt a sense of peace and serenity each time. Some houses are meant to be.

Thank you for writing a book that spoke to me!
Barbette