While I was courting Ruthanne Bohlmann, visiting as often as possible her farmhouse in Illinois, I was vouchsafed a gentle, indelible scene. Though the scene was brief and as common as mother-love everywhere in the world, I've never forgotten it (though my mother-in-law likely had forgotten it by the end of the week). And perhaps because it betokens this most common miracle?that mothers can love immediately, with the fullness of their beings, seeking nothing in return to sustain the love that will not cease?I have found in the event and my memory of it a sustenance of my own. I have cherished the vision for more than three decades; and in the end it triggered a genial children's book of love.