Erica AbbottAbout the authorI grew up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa with two brothers. My dad was an orphan from WWI and came to South Africa as a young boy. My mom grew up in South Africa and encouraged me in dance and music.I have vivid memories from around age five of my dad telling me a story when he put me to bed every night. I think my love for a story came from the wonderful stories he would make up while closing my curtain and covering me up. These memories inspired my poem "Afraid of the dark" that is included in this collection.My mom played the piano and I recall dancing freely to her wonderful music. I think my appreciation for rhythm came from these joyful days of dancing to my mother’s piano music and the early rock and roll records on our phonograph. Growing up I read a lot of poetry, loved dancing and enjoyed my ballet classes. During my school years I attended speech and drama classes where I learned how to communicate my love of stories and rhythm. I went to the University of Cape Town Drama School and qualified as a teacher of speech and drama and started teaching in the local schools.I then produced and acted in several local plays and taught speech and drama.After getting married, I worked as an educational consultant and continued teaching speech and drama.I was involved in public relations work for a nonprofit organization and did talks at schools in some underprivileged communities. Together, with the local police chief, we promoted Human Rights issues and several other uplifting community projects. During this time, I was introduced to the personal assistant of Nelson Mandela and showed her the human rights program, which she enthusiastically endorsed. Together we flew to Los Angeles where she learned more about the Human Rights program. I was invited by the Chamber of Commerce in Cape Town to introduce human rights to the community, and I spoke about this on radio and television.In 2011 my husband passed away so in 2014 I moved to Australia where two of my three children are living. It was at that time I met Sandy, my current husband, who grew up in Hawaii and studied art, photography and graphic design. We moved to Florida in 2021. It was then that I first started to jot down some ideas for writing poems and with the encouragement from Sandy started writing consistently. With his help I have written this book of poetry. I have 12 lovely grandchildren scattered all around the globe.Read more about this authorRead less about this author