About the Author

"Remember, Shirley, YOU are alive!" These words from a virtual stranger changed Shirley Melis's life. Widowed nearly two years, she took off her wedding rings and stepped out of her cocoon. Wings barely dry, she fell madly in love with a man who shared her dreams of travel and encouraged her writing. His untimely death at fifty-nine left her a widow for the second time in four years. Disbelieving and longing to recapture the reality of their star-crossed love, she started writing the deeply personal account of love and loss that became Banged Up Heart.