Stephen Manning

Stephen Manning is the loving husband of Mary Ann. Stephen lives and works in the Silicon Valley of Northern Californian. Stephen's background can be viewed on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevemanning1/

After a few years of morning Mary Ann's passing from her previously diagnosed breast cancer, Stephen decided to write a book about Mary Ann's life, meeting, marriage, and how they grew a family together of four beautiful children. Stephen's initial motivation for writing this book was for their children, Kristie, Karie, Ryan, and in honor of their youngest son Kyle who they had lost earlier. Stephen also wanted their five grandchildren to know who their grandmother was. And to be able to pass this story on to their children someday in the future. After the book's review by his surviving children and then later by the extended family, Stephen was encouraged to publish this work to a larger audience. Many feel that the story it tells of life, love, and family would be of interest. In honor of Mary Ann, Stephen published 'Last Dance: And a Loving Mother' on what would have been Mary Ann's 67th birthday. 'Last Dance' is Stephen's first work which took over 18 months to write, edit and publish. For him, it was a labor of love and help document an incredible journey of love and family development over 37 years of their life together. As with any life journey, it documents many remarkable family successes and addresses two terrible tragedies, including losing their son Kyle at 23 years of age and Mary Ann's passing four years later from breast cancer. Last Dance recognizes the sheer strength of a mother's love for her children that gave her the strength to get to that Last Dance with her son Ryan at his wedding. Seventy-two hours after Ryan said I do Mary Ann passed….

Stephen, his children, their spouses, and the wonderful gift of five grandchildren still celebrate Mary Ann's life at every Sunday night dinner, which they still hold sacred in Mary Ann's honor. Stephen is fortunate to live close to all in a home in Northern California that he and Mary Ann moved into shortly before her passing.