The Kids are All Right: A Memoir by Diana and Liz Welch with Dan and Amanda Welch

2009 was a good year for the Welches:  Dan met Lindsay, his fiance, I married Gideon, the love of my life, and Diana had Harvey–the first Welch of that generation–making Amanda the coolest grandmother/aunt in the universe.  And that was all BEFORE our book was published on September 29th, 2009.

That day, all four Welches met up in Washington DC to begin the launch on the Diane Rehm show.  That interview still gives me goosebumps!  Diana turned 32 the very next day and we celebrated in Brooklyn before our book party at the Pyramid on October 1st.  That weekend, we read to packed and teary-eyed crowds in Bedford, Rye, and New Canaan ,where we were hugged by countless familiar faces. Thus began our marathon book tour that zig zagged across the country.  I am still in awe that 90 people came to Aldo’s in Greenport, 80 to Books Inc in San Francisco and another 30-plus in Los Angeles, where I also had the giddy pleasure of taping a show at NPR’s Market Place with Diana and shaking hands with Tess Vigeland and Bill Radke!

Even more thrilling was seeing old friends in Oxford AND Greenwood, Mississippi, and then Essex, Vermont where Libby and Deb, two sisters with a very similar story, drove more than two hours to have their books signed.  Deb marched up to me at the Pheonix Book Store and said, “I’m Diana” and then Libby chimed in, “and I am Liz!”  Their brother is actually called Dan, and their Amanda could not come, but our story touched them to their core as they too lost their parents and were separated after the deaths.  They have one more sister, and all five siblings are closer than ever. They are more than all right, too. We have heard from so many people who have similar stories, and still receive daily emails from friends, fans, and folks who knew us or our mom.

Other 2009 highlights include a jam-packed reading at the Hotel San Jose in Austin where Diana cast her friends as her siblings. Following suit, I did the same at The Half King in New York where the literary stars who blurbed our book read for Dan (Sean Wilsey), Amanda (Heidi Julavits) and Diana (Daphne Beal).  My dear friend, the author Laurie Sandell, blogged about it, God Bless her.

That was the start of the holiday season and our gifts came early–Amazon chose us as one of their Best Books of 2009, as did Sean Wilsey for Salon.  Vanity Fair did us double honors: First by asking us to read for their Reading Room series, and then by choosing our book as their “Top Ten Books to read on your Holiday vacation.”  I wrote the Op Ed story about my mom and the death of soap operas on a lark, never thinking they’d actually go for it… imagine my surprise when I learned that the story would run on the same day our mom died, December 13th, twenty-four years later.  The emails came pouring in–Judy Lewis, John Cunningham and Courtney Simon and other acting friends of mom shared beautiful memories of our mom, as did the son and daughter of Mary Stuart, the star of “Search for Tomorrow.” People got in touch who adopted our pets after dad died, a caddy sent a hilarious note thanking us for the book, and recalling how he more than once carried our mom’s golf clubs at the Bedford Golf and Tennis club.  Those stories are precious as each memory of our mother fills in a new blank spot, offering us a rare glimpse of a woman we knew not long enough.  (The caddy called her a stone-cold fox, John Cunningham, her husband on “Loving,” said she was the most graceful of women.)

What else?  Well, Megan Flinn and Lizann Rodes, two friends from Georgetown, hosted a reading in my honor at Megan’s home in Pennsylvania where 60 friends came to listen to me read, with Megan channeling Diana, and Lizann doing an excellent Amanda.  The following day, I had lunch with the GREAT Pat Towers, formerly the Features Editor of O Magazine and now hosting her own radio show, Reading, Writing and Definitely NOT Arithmetic, of which I had the GREAT honor of being her first guest. There are so many more amazing things that have happened over the past few months–from our appearance on Good Morning America to the surprise Entertainment Weekly spread.

All this to say, we Welches are thankful for all the love and the support. And for one another.  May 2010 be as happy and healthy and full of giddy surprises for everyone.