Jim LaBate

"Our Sweet Maria – Her First 30 Years and Her Final 30 Days"

“But I’m too young to die.”

Those were the words 30-year-old Maria uttered when an oncologist explained that a recently diagnosed breast cancer may have spread to her brain and if that were the case, the prognosis would be “poor.”

Unfortunately, Maria did not survive.

This book is both a biography of Maria’s life and a memoir of how her Christian family dealt with her hospitalization and eventual death. Maria was working full-time at a hospital and was studying part-time to earn her Master’s degree in teaching when she became afflicted with what she thought was a migraine headache.

During most of Maria’s final days in the hospital, various doctors were trying to determine the cause of not only Maria’s headache but also her back and neck pain. One doctor in particular referred to her as a “diagnostic dilemma.” Unfortunately, by the time they figured out the problem, Maria had only a short time to live.

As Maria’s dad and as a retired college writing instructor, Jim LaBate dealt with Maria’s sudden passing by writing about her life and her final month under medical care.

This book is a father’s love song to his daughter.

Jim's previous book, "Streets of Golfito," was awarded the 2021 Maria Thomas Fiction Award for novels about the Peace Corps.

"Streets of Golfito," focuses on two individuals who meet in Golfito, Costa Rica in 1974. Jim (Diego) is a 22-year-old Peace Corps Volunteer from upstate New York, and he has been assigned to introduce sports other than soccer to the young people.

By contrast, Lilli is a shy, beautiful, 17-year-old Costa Rican girl who wants to learn English and escape her small town, a banana port on the Pacific side near the Panamanian border.

In alternating chapters, the first third of the book shows these two characters growing up in their respective countries. Then, after they meet, Lilli experiences a tragedy that will drastically change her life, and Jim does all he can to help her survive and thrive in her new circumstances.

Jim worked for most of his career as a writing specialist in The Writing Center at Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) in Troy, New York. He also taught physical education as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Golfito, Costa Rica for two years. He taught high-school English for ten years. Then, he worked for ten years as a writer, editor, and proofreader before moving to HVCC.

In his first two works of fiction -- "Let's Go, Gaels" and "Mickey Mantle Day in Amsterdam" -- Jim tells stories about a 12-year-old boy who grew up in the former "Rug Capital of the World," Amsterdam, New York. While those novels covered, respectively, one week and one day in the early life of the narrator, "Things I Threw in the River" covers a much broader spectrum of the narrator's life, and all the stories in the novel end at the Mohawk River. Jim's fourth novel, however, introduces a new protagonist altogether.

Tom Sullivan is a 21-year-old college student, and he's in love with his creative writing professor - as well he should be. Margaret Cavellari is hot! She looks like a cross between Catherine Zeta-Jones and Penelope Cruz. Okay, so no one is really that hot, but Margaret is close. In addition, she's kind. She's funny. She's interesting. And she's a great teacher.

So when Tom accidentally discovers her computer password, what will he do? Will he read her e-mail? Will he look at her pictures and her word processing files? Will he go into her gradebook? Naturally, Tom Sullivan is curious. But is he also stupid? Of course he is. Read all about Tom's computer adventures in "My Teacher's Password."

Jim has also published "Writing Is Hard," a collection of over 100 essays about writing. Based on Jim's career as a writing instructor, this collection is reader friendly; each informal essay is focused on only a small portion of the writing process or on one small part of the mechanics of writing.

Jim lives in Clifton Park, New York, with his wife, Barbara; they have two daughters: Maria and Katrina.