My days spent in Dubuque have gone well. My energy level was a bit peaked but I knew that Laura Oberfoell and the students at Hoover Elementary were expecting a big show.

Mrs. Oberfoell ushered me into the gym and asked if I wouldn't mind having individual pictures taken with the students who'd purchased a book.

Of course I didn't mind.

Mrs. Oberfoell who goes by "Mrs. O" organized the books by classes with such efficiency that she reminded me of a professional card dealershuffling a poker hand at Diamond Joe's. Both speeches went well and what was most interesting was a young boy who came up to me after the show and asked if he could have my autograph.

When I heartily agreed, the student pulled out a folded picture he had illustrated with care and asked me to sign his pencil sketch in the extreme left hand side. I signed his drawing as directed and then he folded his picture and placed it in his notebook. All was right in his world. Here was this author who gave him a memento to hold on to.

This young man's story is similar to several other stories I came across while in Dubuque. "We just never know," said the sister I had met at the Abbey, "what that one special favor you do for someone else that might just be the thing he or she needs to take hold of and just may change his or her life for the better."

Man the phones, Sister, you just never know who might need your loving hand.

Thank you Dubuque for all you have given me.