The Nurse in the
Delivery Room Slapped Me...
Once
Stories and Perspectives to Help You
Unlock Your Amazing Potential

*

Feature Newspaper Article on D Anthony

INNER PEACE
Writing of poetry, stories gave Colora man strength
By Jane Bellmyer jbellmyer@cecilwhig.com
Posted: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:31 AM EDT

D Anthony hopes his first book, “The Nurse in the Delivery Room Slapped Me... Once” will enlighten and encourage readers.

Published by the Beckham Publications Group, it is a 220-page collection of stories, poems and revelations that the 43-year-old Colora man hopes will help people see life as more than just a roller-coaster existence.

“The purpose of the book is to make people pause and think about life in a different way,” said Anthony, 43. “There are possibilities. There are opportunities.”
He said people often live their lives following an agenda set by society: “Do this, get good grades, get a good job, pay bills.”

“Somewhere along the way you stop, pause for a second and say, Why are we here?” he said.

His book is a personal journey that began several years ago.
“I started all this when my mother passed away,” he said. “I wrote something for her funeral. It was helping me, so I continued to write.”

The book includes long and short pieces with thought-provoking sentences such as, “If you’ve never laid brick can you ever fully appreciate the wall?”

“A Need to Change” tells the story of preparing to go somewhere with his father. Then a teenager, Anthony was about to leave the house in a plain white T-shirt. He recalls how his father refused to travel with a teenager in such attire. It led to Anthony’s surrender to Wingtip shoes, and the realization that his father “wasn’t so much a square as I was na�ve.”
Each chapter covers a different perspective of life, and is capped off with a challenge for the reader. At the end of “A Little Gratitude,” the reader is dared to find a stranger who is having a bad day and make him or her smile. The way to do that, he says, is for you to smile first.

“Do this once and watch the difference you’ll make in that person’s day. Do this on a daily basis and watch the difference you’ll make in yours.”

But this book isn’t full of happy stories about sunshine and butterflies. Chapter 7 is, “Eventually, Death Visits Us All.” Anthony said some readers have told him they skipped that chapter. It is where he placed the story “In The Upper Room” about the death of his mother.

“She was about to leave me and there was nothing I could do about it. That’s as real as it gets,” he said.

“I tried to savor every contour of her face, the feel of her hand, her scent, her warmth,” he writes. “I told her over and over how much I loved her.”

It was a passage he didn’t expect to write, but after a friend had the same dark experience, Anthony knew it had to be part of the book.
“I had a sense there are people out there that could be impacted by it,” he said. “I believe I’ve found my purpose: to take what I’ve learned and share my perspective.”

Anthony said that when it’s his time to leave this world, he plans to do so with no regrets. He has adopted the Frank Sinatra tune “My Way” as his personal mantra.

He makes a point to look for those breathtaking moments, however simple. It was one such moment that caused him to relocate his family from Philadelphia to Colora four years ago.
“I was looking for something a little more peaceful peace and quiet and tranquility,” he said.

As he stood in the backyard of the home he was considering he had a revelation.

“I said, Listen. Do you hear anything?’ We heard nothing. That’s what I wanted to hear,” he said.

The Nurse in the Delivery Room Slapped Me... Once” is available through Amazon.com and at Anthony’s Web site, www.ststhebook.com. The site offers daily affirmations and also sells inspirational items.

In the meantime, he’ll keep writing.

“There’s going to be another book, two at least,” he said.
His father, so critical of Anthony’s choice of attire many years ago, is now one of his biggest fans.

“My dad has read it and re-read it and can’t stop talking about it,” he said.

Fans or not, Anthony insists the experience has been worthwhile.
“When it’s all said and done, if I can touch a couple of lives, the rest is gravy,” he said.

Copyright © 1999 - 2008