TO THE PINNACLE: A Memoir of a Life in ProgressBiographical Information: Eve still resides in Oskaloosa, Iowa.Her first book, MY HUSBAND, MY CHILD, concerns her husband'sdescent into dementia and, of course, her reactions to thatdescent.Dedication: To all those people in Rock Shadows, Apache Junction, Arizona, who looked after Hal so that I had time to write thesechapters of my life. Also, to the Overseas Schools HistoricalSociety in Wichita, Kansas, and all teachers everywhere.With Special Thanks To: Reye Goedeken and Kim Dixon, who rescuedthis technological dinosaur by preparing the manuscript for thepublisher.Possibilities for the back of the book: A few years ago, I heard something on public radio which I tried to write down. By the time I stopped the car, the exact wording was gone, but it went something like this: "There is an ecstacy at the epitome of life, which we can never achieve again and beyond which life can never reach again."Standing at the top of Rheingrafenstein, after a hard buttriumphant climb, during what were probably my best teaching years, with helpful Hal by my side, I often felt that I hadreached some sort of pinnacle.That pinnacle is not the top of Mt. Everest or the peak ofa glorious career. It doesn't have to be monumental to be highfor a Depression gal who started at the bottom. Everything fromthe bottom is up. Perhaps one doesn't have to be a famous film star or a former First Lady to have the temerity to write an account ofone's life in a Memoir. For years I have been profoundly influ-enced by a line from John Ciardi's poem called "The Gift": "ThatHell is the denial of the ordinary."Thanks for sharing.