James E Pope

I was born in November of 1931 in Flint, Michigan and was raised in Grand Blanc, Michigan. I met my wife, Mae, at church when she was 13 and I was 15. At the end of our teenage years "life" set us on separate paths until we were reunited in 1962. Mae's death separated us in 2026 and during those 63 years we were blessed beyond measure. In 2021 in visits with siblings and friends we talked about how little we knew about our ancestors. That motivated me to write my book of memories and publish 75 copies for my children and their children. It was never offered for sale. Mae and I aged into our 90s , and as we reminisced a little about our early years I thought about that book of memories and how it didn't tell the real "our story", The thought of writing a novel had never entered my mind and I'm not sure I have ever read a romance novel until I wrote this one. But this story that I named THE JOURNEY TO FOREVER AFTER was to be just for close family. How it came to be published is another story.

Readers will travel with these teenagers as they forge a bond that will be severely tested but never broken. They seemed destined to spend their life together but life doesn't play fair and as they navigate years of wrong turns and heartache you will empathize with ever tear, every silence, every betrayal as they struggle to maintain their faith, a faith that sustained them, a faith that never wavered. This is not just a story, it's a journey through the unfiltered tale of a young couple growing up and finding their destiny.