In the several years of writing this blog, I have never dedicated a post to my wife, Della, but it is certainly about time. For those of you that personally know me, know how very proud I am of my wife and all of her achievements. It goes without saying that she is indeed “my better half“. She has accomplished much throughout her life and she is sometimes to humble or too private to admit it. So let me be her cheerleader – something she does for me all the time.

Della Cassia

Before I describe Della’s latest achievements, I would like to give you some historical context which I feel is important for you to understand. My parents were creative people having the ability to utilize both sides of their brains to compose and execute a positive creative expression. (Sounds cerebral, but there is a reason for that description).

My father was an engineer who worked at Ford Motor Company for over thirty years. Toward the end of his working career, he released a book that he had transcribed from Armenian to English called Bank Ottoman: The Memoirs of Armen Garo. He not only funded this project, but typeset the book on a computer (which was new technology at that time) and graphically designed the book jacket along with all of the marketing materials to promote the sale of the book. This is one of several examples I could provide that included his mastery in woodworking, carpentry, and drawing.

My mother was also artistic throughout her life. She was a writer, journalist, and artist. When she was in college she wrote for the school newspaper and was an excellent sketch artist and painter. As she got older, she would write several short stories and submit them for publishing. Towards the end of her life, she was even writing a fiction novel based on elements surrounding the Armenian Genocide. (My mother would have been thrilled to have read Della’s writing)

Something my parents had in common were their excellent written skills. Powerful writers.  My father could pen a letter like no one else. Always well thoughtful and clear, his letters were professional works of art in my opinion. I’d like to think I inherited a bit of this talent when composing letters or emails. My mother was my proof reader of anything I wrote in public school and college. Her editing skills were superb.

Ok, now that I set the stage to show you what I was exposed to growing up, let me focus on Della.

Photo by Cristina Gottardi via Unsplash

I say all of this to lead into talking about Della and her creative and artistic mind. She is a writer – a published writer. This my friends is a big deal. At the beginning of March, Della had her first personal essay published called The Blue Duffel Bag: A Journey from Beirut to America Literary Mama, a U.S.-based online literary magazine focused on publishing writing about motherhood in a variety of genres. They reach over 40,000 monthly readers.

She has also created a website called The Curious Creative and I urge you to visit her website and sign up so you don’t miss her blogs.

The Oakland Post, a student newspaper for Oakland university, published a real nice story about Della that you can read by clicking here.

Big hugs & congratulations to Della. This is just the beginning …