Joan Cannon, novelist, and senior woman

When it comes to helping newbies and wannabes, no one is better than Glenda. She has introduced me to the most important contacts I have--out of pure friendliness and generosity. Thank you, Glenda, always!      ...Joan Cannon, author  https://www.seniorwomen.com/news/index.php/author/joan-cannon/

Joan Cannon was an author who was widowed and lived alone in western North Carolina, but not in the NCWN-West region. She was in her late sixties or seventies when she emailed me many years ago. She wanted to be a member of Netwest, but she did not live in our region. She did not receive our emails, but she followed us on our blog at https://netwestwriters.blogspot.com/. She sent me one of her novels, and it was a good story. Michelle Keller read it and enjoyed it. Joan said her publisher did not do anything to help her sell books, and she wanted my advice.

Well, the first thing I realized was that she had no platform on which to promote her books. 
And as an older woman, she faced ageism, which was flagrant in the literary world at the time. Also, as an older person, she didn't feel safe traveling alone to distant venues to read, meet others interested in writing, or attend groups that met at night. If you are an older person who fits this description, you understand Joan's problems.

I researched places where an older writer, a good writer, might get published. I researched https://www.Seniorwomen.com and found that they invite older women to submit to their online publication.  I knew Joan would be perfect for them. I suggested she read the work there and see if she might want to submit an article or an opinion. It was not long before she emailed me to say she had been published on the Senior Women site. Just as I thought, her work was perfect for the online magazine.

The next time I heard from Joan, she had been asked to be a regular writer for Seniorwomen.com. If you are a retired woman or a woman of any age, you will find interesting information and thoughts by women you can relate to.

For a number of years, I read Senior Women and always enjoyed Joan Cannon's writing.  Finally, Joan's health began to fail, and she could no longer manage to live in her house all alone. She moved back up north to be near her children. She said it was a hard decision and she didn't want to leave North 
Carolina, but she knew she must go. 

It seems the most stressful experiences happen in our senior adult years. We lose our partner, and then we must move from a house steeped in memories of those later years when we had time to really talk, to know each other better, to share deep feelings we had held inside. It seems that we begin to prepare for death when our beloved is gone. Our own health suffers from the loss, grief, and heartache. We must move to some place where we can be best cared for, whether we want to go or not. Stress hangs over our every minute. Age becomes something we think about more often, and illnesses, aches, and pains that won't go away fuel our nightmares. 

Joan only wrote to me a few times after moving up north. But one day, I realized it had been a long time since I heard from her. I emailed Joan, and her daughter answered. Joan had died.

I think of her often. Tonight, I decided to see if any of her writing was still on www.seniorwomen.com, and I was so very happy to see that she is still listed as an author and that her essays and articles are available on the website. I am not sure if the website is still active, but I enjoyed reading that Joan Cannon, my friend whom I have never met in person, still has her writing on the site for anyone who visits and clicks on her name.