You’ll never know the reach of this book. It is so beyond my expectations and so completely meets a need right now. My whole family sat around a big brunch table with Mom and read it and talked about it for hours!

Donna’s unobtrusive, gentle style evoked stories from my mom with a depth that I had never heard before. And her meticulous recording and editing shaped the stories so that our book reads like a novel!

The project has led to requests for an updated edition with an appendix about the Jane Stern Dorado Community Library, founded more than forty years ago. Once again, Donna has photographed materials and with dedicated eye to detail compiled and arranged them to tell story. The photos bring the story alive!

When my Mom was interviewed, she not only remembered her past—she seemed to become a sequence of past selves, and I could really see her as a young child and a young woman in love … I cherish having witnessed this transformation. The process itself was a gift to my Mother—she gained a sense of the arc of her life, and a feeling of pride in all she had experienced.

Now that she is gone, Born Under a Special Star remains as unifying remembrance for my extended family, and for family and friends in the future, to know and learn from the life of an inspiring woman.

I am so grateful for the work that Donna does, as I know I never would have created this enduring family history on my own. And every time we need to look up an ancestor on the family tree, everyone knows where to find them!”—MS, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts