It was almost three decades ago when I first walked into the dusty little book shop. The View From Orbit Bookstore was really just a tiny little hole in the wall but it had a certain charm to it. A feeling of love and warmth that children today most likely will never experience.

Ardath Mayhar and her husband Joe had opened the small store in a small town not only to try to make a little money to supplement her writing but also to express their love of literature. It was a soon to become my haven from the outside world. I can not express exactly how much I loved that store…and the lady who owned it. Unfortunately, I will never get that chance, Ardath Frances Hurst Mayhar left us on February 1, 2012. Ardath was born in 1930 and passed away just a couple of weeks before her eighty-second birthday.