Let's Ask Auntie Anne Series

Authors Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo with Diane Wiggins

In this series of books we depart from our traditional method of dialectic instruction, (premise, facts, argument and conclusion) and turn to an older and more personal style of persuasion ─ sharing parenting principles in story-form. Who doesn’t love a good story?

Stories are entertaining and provide a unique conduit for dispensing practical wisdom and moral truth that otherwise might be lost in an academic venue. When we read or hear a story we find ourselves feeling for the characters through their speech and thoughts. We often identify and empathize with their fears, hopes, dreams and expectations. Most importantly, from their successes and failures we can learn lessons for life. Stories have the power to change us ─ and indeed they do!

The Let’s Ask Auntie Anne series consist of five stories and five pertinent parenting themes. Each story is embedded with practical advice that will guide the reader to greater understanding of the complexities of childrearing and hopefully serve as a friend to motivate positive change.

Finally, the series was designed for individual or group study. The questions at the end of each book both remind and highlight the significant principles of the lessons taught. Whether you read for your own pleasure or share with a community of friends, we know you will benefit from a trip to Auntie Anne’s kitchen and her treasury of parenting knowledge. Enjoy.

Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo
Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina

Meet the Real Auntie Anne
Eleanor Roosevelt insightfully concluded that “Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.” The main character in this book is, as the former First Lady described, a beautiful work of art, fashioned by the colors of life.
Auntie Anne is not a fictional character. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 24, 1914. Her life, while not as glamorous as Eleanor Roosevelt’s has indeed been greatly influential. With an earthly common sense that often eludes others and a sense of humor that never fails, this amazing woman of ninety-plus years continues to endear herself to friend and stranger.*

Each book in this series is as much a tribute to a beautiful life as it is a parenting resource filled with timeless wisdom and practical application. In each story (just as in real life), Auntie Anne is cheerfully spry, physically capable, neither failing in sight nor mind. A philosopher of sorts, and like those of her day, her interest extends into all areas. The mind, she believes, has no limits but those we choose to give it, and hungry minds, whether of children or the elderly, need the food of useful knowledge ─ daily.

In real life, the children who called Auntie Anne “Mom” were children of aristocrats, professors, and other notables from the fair cities up North. No, they were not her children by birth, but by design. As a Boston nanny, she loved them as a mother loves her own. She would weave buttercup crowns and sing treasured melodies. She cooked extravagantly and lusciously ─ spices and herbs, warm buttered bread, and crusty apple cobbler baked to a beautiful brown hue. Reading followed mealtimes routinely. Each of the children under Auntie Anne’s care were taught to love books. She took them through literary adventures with Dickens, Poe, T. S. Eliot, Tolkien, Hemingway, Bunyan, and more.

The beautiful, historical City of Charleston, South Carolina, frames the backdrop for the series. Auntie Anne draws her parenting lessons from the city’s rich history and the daily life of people living on or near the Carolina saltwater marshes. Charleston’s glorious past from the Colonial period through the American Revolution, the Civil War, and into the present day and the beauty of its perfectly maintained historical district, cobblestone streets and waterfront parks are all woven into Auntie Anne’s lessons.

The descriptions of places, people, scenes, and the anecdotal stories in each book are factual. Apart from Auntie Anne, the characters in our stories are fictional but their needs accurately reflect the many common concerns and challenges for today’s parents. The authors speak through Auntie Anne’s life story to satisfy the needs of each inquiring couple.

Come and enjoy. Put on your slippers, find a quiet nook, and benefit from a trip to RiverTowne, and Auntie Anne’s kitchen. If you can picture a home by the water, a flowered paradise of sorts, with a vista of blue skies and green marshes, where birds and butterflies fill the air and the scent of ocean mingles with a Carolina morning, then you have successfully imagined Auntie Anne’s home at the water’s edge. Here you will find a friend, one who connects for a new generation of parents the descriptive — the way it was and the way it is — with the prescriptive — the way it should be.

Meet the Carriage Couples
It all goes back to Missy. Of course, she could not have known the train of events to spin out of her spunky fondness for hopping in cars not her own. Nor does she own a car. This Missy, oh beg your pardon, is a dog. A fluffy white pedigree peek-a-poo with a Rottweiler complex and a James Cagney smile. When she hopped in the car of Geoff and Ginger Portier on that Saturday night so long ago, no one could have imagined the chain of events that would eventually lead five couples on a journey of discovery about themselves and their parenting. In one of life’s paradoxical moments, the beginning often becomes clearer in light of the end and so it is with our story.

It was through the strange encounter with Missy, that the Portiers first met Auntie Anne. (Narrative is found in Book Five.) It only took one delightful Sunday afternoon sipping sweet tea and playing a game of Scrabble for Geoff and Ginger to discover the treasury of Auntie Anne’s knowledge. Auntie Anne is more than a good person at heart and a wonderful chef in the kitchen, she is also a wise sage, a woman gifted in thought with a plentiful supply of grace and charm. All of this accented by a marvelous wit. Yes, a refreshing wit that compliments her clean heart and noble mind. In a time of desperation and perplexing challenges our dear Auntie Anne brings much needed correction and aid to Geoff and Ginger’s parenting. From that experience, others would come to know of this woman’s marvelous gifts.

The following Spring five couples crowded together on the padded seats of an old wooden carriage harnessed to two brown mules named Knick and Knack. Two-week-old chicks circled underfoot, pecking eagerly at feed dropped from the mules’ grain bags. A minute later, the driver shook the reins and called, “Eeyuup.” Twenty-two-hundred pounds of muscle lunged forward as chicks scattered in every direction. The carriage swayed out of the big red barn to the rhythm of creaking wood and clopping hoofs. Another tour of historical Charleston, South Carolina had begun with a promise of a blessing.

Coincidence or destiny? It mattered little. It was just one of those odd occurrences in life. Five couples, strangers to each other, meet randomly on a bright and sunny Carolina morning and everything clicked. A few minutes into the carriage ride and the couples were already talking about their children left at home. School pictures traveled up and down the rows greeted by smiles and nodding heads. The tour of Charleston’s historical district took just over an hour and by the time the carriage returned to the big red barn, the couples were talking like old friends. Charleston has a way of doing that, making everyone feel like family.

It was Geoff and Ginger Portier who brought up the idea of lunch. Eyes met and heads nodded and before long, five couples set out to enjoy one of the Charleston’s delightful bistros. Settling in with iced chai, and a few diet cokes, the couples talked about the high points of the tour before the topic turned once again to their children, parenting and life on the home-front. It was than that Geoff and Ginger directed the conversation by sharing what they considered to be one of Charleston’s best kept secrets.

“Her name,” Geoff said, “was Auntie Anne and she can change your life. Her thoughts are relevant, her searching mind insightful, and her understanding of the human heart runs deep and wide.” “She is a refreshing change from all the parenting experts I’ve read lately,” Ginger added, “and her wise counsel is gentle and affective.”

“If you need help with parenting, and find yourself frustrated with your other options, pay a little visit with Auntie Anne. There are only two things required,” Geoff went on to say. “First, play a game of Scrabble with the dear woman and second, talk nice to her little dog Missy.”

Geoff and Ginger continued with their celebration of Auntie Anne, sharing about that memorable Sunday afternoon months ago. The contagious energy of their enthusiasm was food for the weary soul and put hope and expectancy in the hearts of their new friends. Now peeked with curiosity and a secret longing for assistance, each couple over time would find their way to the big green house near the water’s edge that Auntie Anne called home.

Five couples, and five unique parenting challenges. Listen in as Auntie Anne satisfies each inquiry with relevant and practical “rubber meets the road” advice.

Book Summary
In Book One, Mac and Vicki Lake can not figure out why their children act as if they are not loved. Mom and Dad are missing something so basic that even the simple phrase “I love you” falls short of its intended meaning. How well did Auntie Anne help them? You decide after reading How to Raise a Loving Child.

In Book Two, meet Bill and Elaine Lewis. Who doesn’t know at least one family facing the frustration of irresponsible children? Messy rooms, wet towels on the floor, and unfinished homework are just the beginning. Join Bill and Elaine as they go with Auntie Anne on a journey to the heart of How to Raise a Responsible Child.

In Book Three, little do Rick and Lela Harvey know that a lack of security is the root of their children’s behavioral problems. Nervous, irritable children acting out at school in seemingly uncontrollable ways are a dead giveaway. Auntie Anne’s has a plan for this home. Find out what and who needs to change in How to Raise a Secure Child.

In Book Four, Clarke and Mia Forden seek out Auntie Anne’s advice on building trusting relationships. For Clarke and Mia, the pace of today’s family is troubling. How will fathers capture the hearts of their children with so little time? Find out what they wished they had learned a dozen years earlier in How to Raise a Trusting Child.

In Book Five, Geoff and Ginger Portier tell their story of how Auntie Anne taught them how to make virtues and values real in the lives of their children. What will it take to create a love for moral beauty within the heart of their children? Auntie Anne provides solid answers in How to Raise a Moral Child.

* The real Auntie Anne passed away on March 3, 2005.