Guestbook

I cannot thank you enough for sharing your life with Pat. He has touched me like no other writer and my one regret is that I was never able to meet him in person. Through his works and through "Tell Me a Story" I at last have a glimpse of him.

Not only have I read everything he wrote, but through his "My Reading Life" he has lead me to a scan few of the books that influenced him. He has opened my eyes to how great books can be so influential and allowing me to experience the world and feel what the writers are feeling.

Mr. Conroy has given me such pleasure, allowed me to feel his pain and to live the life of his characters. I always hoped one day to meet him and to try to tell him his impact on me. He was only a few years older than me, but I was hooked from the first page of his that I ever read.

"Tell me a Story" was at least a way for me to try and close a chapter with his loss. I cannot express to you my gratitude in allowing me to share in your loss.

I have read all of Pat’s books. Some I loved, some I liked, and some I participated in, THE BOO. I laughed, cried, got angry, (OK pissed off), but always entertained.
For me to feel is to live and Pat helped with that. In Cassandra’s book, TELL ME A STORY, she shares an intimate portrait of the man.
I wish I could have been his friend.

Wow

I just finished reading Tell Me a Story. Loved it and learning more stories.
Having read almost all of Pat Conroys books and at least half of Cassadra's, I am a huge fan.

Twice I was able to attend events where Pat spoke in Birmingham and tasted his shrimp and grits at one of the receptions. Such a blessing.

As I read this book I kept interrupting my husband's reading to share something with him. The beauty sickness is so spot on with several people, including me. Ants and grasshoppers are in my family and marriage......

Prayers to you Cassandra and all of Pat Conroys family, friends and fans.

I was teaching special education in an inner city school in Milwaukee when I read Pat Conroy’s THE WATER IS WIDE around 1974.

Over a period of 40 years I have read all of his books but feel that I never really got to know him up front and personal until I read TELL ME A STORY by Cassandra King Conroy. When we moved to Hilton Head Island from Asheville 40 years ago, I found myself living 30 miles from his adopted Beaufort home. Still Pat Conroy was a very private person and even had I not gone to his book signings I would have never gotten to know him—until I read the book by Cassandra and the book by Pat Conroy’s other best friend Bernie Schein.
I believe I have found someone in Cassandra who appears to hold the proverbial Thomas Wolfe key to the “unfound door” and “Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven.” She writes about the golden bridge that magically appears as the sun sets as Pat Conroy makes his last voyage—the longest, the best.

“What bridge?” Thomas Wolfe writes. “Great God, the only bridge, the bridge of power, life and joy,
the bridge that was a span, a cry, an ecstasy—that was America. What bridge? The bridge whose wing-like sweep like space and joy and ecstasy was mixed like music in his blood, would beat like flight and joy and triumph through the conduits of his life forever.”

As you look across this bridge to the west as it sets over Manhattan, the Hudson and lands beyond as its golden glow touches the heart of America, you then again ask: What bridge? “The bridge whereon at night he had walked and stood and watched, a thousand times until every fabric of its soaring web was inwrought in his memory, and every living sinew of its million cabled nerves had throbbed and pulsed in his own spirit like his soul’s anatomy.

“The—the Brooklyn Bridge he mumbled. “ All who have read Thomas Wolfe and Pat Conroy would know that this bridge alone was the one that “throbbed and pulsed in his own spirit like his soul’s anatomy.” And was his “lost lane-end into heaven.”TELL ME A STORY and all of Sandra’s books are must reading for those who want to get to know who the real Pat Conroy was and who the real Cassandra King Conroy is. King Ray Conroy has opened up the LOST LANE—END INTO HEAVEN.
(I placed this on Amazon reviews as well..)

I hesitated reading Tell me a story because I feared that I may not like him, and I didn't want to tarnish my memory (from his writing as I never knew him personally), but this book actually made me admire him more.

I found your description of your relationship so similar to my own marriage and created a new thankfulness for it. While driving to work Friday morning I was thinking about you Ms. Conroy, (I had never read your books and had no idea how much I would love you) and how much I admire some of your quirks and then I realized that I think we have a lot of the quirks/habits/issues and it was a nice experience to realize that I do like myself.

I do wish I could be more of a grasshopper instead of an ant, but old habits are hard to break. Dale calls me secret squirrel for the same reasons you were called Helen Keller. Honestly, I paced myself the last 72 hours to not consume the book in one setting, and as I finished I was in awe when I thought a few pictures would have been nice, and there on the next page was the instructions to see the pictures very nice touch. I am unsure if I will read The Girls or the Preachers Wife first, but I am so thankful that I didn't let my fear keep me from enjoying this treasure. Thank you so much for sharing your self and your life with him.
Blessings, Missy

Cassandra, both my son and I were reading The Sunday Wife at the same time. I have read it more than once. My son called me and said Mom, do you think she has insider information about living in a parsonage and being a preacher’s wife, for him a pk or preacher’ s kid.
I did not know at the time that you had been married to a preacher. It was quite the fish bowl life wasn’t it? My husband was also a preacher. We had two sons and lived in parsonages for 18 years. In our case my husband died of a heart attack when he was 44 and I was 37.
My boys were 17 and 12. When we moved out of the parsonage into a home I bought in my hometown we had a piano, a stereo, and a lawnmower. I had to furnish our new home through my friends generosity and from my parents attic.
I had the money to buy a few necessities like refrigerator, washer and dryer. It was the first home my boys and I had ever owned. The day I moved into that house I sank down into the soft couch that my father bought for me and took the longest nap of my life. I did not realize until that day the heavy burden of stress that I was carrying. So I identified with that book and have read it more than once. I am getting ready to read it again.
Thank you for Tell Me a Story. I cried and cried at the end. My marriage was a good one and I was devastated when my husband died. I do not, however miss living in the fish bowl that our life had become. No one really knows what a lonely existence that is.
I am now happily remarried as a retired teacher and elementary school counselor. I have a lot of stories in me, both from my previous life and the life as a teacher/counselor.

As a beloved fan of Pat Conroy, I have to say that reading your book, Tell Me A Story, really touched my heart. It was wonderful to read the more personal side of Pat. I found your love story to be beautiful and so funny at the same time.
I had the pleasure of meeting Pat when he came to Columbia, SC for a book signing. He was staying in the hotel that I worked. It was a pleasure to meet him and to have a conversation with him. I found him to be both interesting and intriguing. I, also, found myself wanting to hear more, but he had to be on his way.
He was kind enough to sign several of his books for me. I told him my favorite was The Water Is Wide, and that still remains true to this day. Thank you so much for allowing his fans to see, in your story, the man behind his great works. I really loved your book and look forward to reading more of your books.

Several friends and I joined you in Beaufort for the divine cocktail party and introduction to you and your newest book, "Tell Me A Story"... It was truly a magical evening from start to finish- one I will never forget. I was the enthusiastic early comer who hugged y'all on the front porch!
I finished the beautiful love story in 2 days, and now am well into "Moonrise". I lived near Highlands for 13 years...and know the area so well. Now, a true "low country " woman, I love the smell of pluff mud and the warm breezes off the May river. Pat was my favorite author whose books were inhaled as soon as they were published. My marvelous 3rd husband has 16 books on Amazon- also a beautiful writer.
I cried heartfelt tears over , " The Sunday Wife" , as I was the lost wife of a Headmaster for as long as you were the "preacher's wife"... I was also a full time RN for over 40 years.
Thank you for the JOY you bring to so many with your skill and heart.
Judith E. Harlow

Hello there, KB. I just finished reading, Tell Me A Story, all in one day. Thank you for sharing your life with Pat and the thoughtful insights into life the telling gives. Thank you for sharing the photo of the golden bridge to the dock. For the acknowledgment of your premonition that it would be the last time you saw your friend. For so much of your lives that you shared. I have been a nurse for more than 35 years and am only now beginning to dip a toe into the maelstrom of becoming a writer and eventually living a writer's life, I am but an egg at the moment, still learning and fighting overwhelm at the options available. Thank you for the gift of your story. Much appreciated.