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Meet Lisa Cortez: An Author On A Mission! By John RiddleNot everyone is fortunate enough to have a best friend who is such a bright light spreading laughter and happiness to everyone they meet. But Lisa Cortez, a pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist in San Diego, considers herself blessed to have known Marie Story Feldman.“Marie passed away from cancer 9 years ago,” Lisa said. “She was truly a bright light in this world, and one thing that really stood out about her was her love for laughter and her ability to make others laugh. I had known for a long time that I wanted to do something to honor Marie. One day, three years ago, I took out a journal that a friend had given me that said, ‘Write Your Story’ on the cover.”“I sat down and just started writing. I kept writing until I finished. The book follows Marie and I on our everyday activities, such as going out for pizza and running in the snow. The theme of the book is how it is those everyday experiences together that get transformed into lasting memories through the beauty of friendship.”Before long, The Adventures of Marie and LeeLee was published.Lisa wanted to include language development strategies in the book and met that goal with excellence.“I designed the book based on my experience providing speech therapy services to the early intervention population,” she shared. “I have included lots of opportunities for several types of imitation throughout the book. Imitation is a key building block to language development.”Lisa hopes this book will bring smile and joy to all who read it. Partial proceeds from book sales will be donated to a volunteer organization that Marie was involved in called New York Cares.“New York Cares is the largest volunteer organization in New York City. It was formed in 1987 by a group of friends who wanted a centralized way to connect volunteers with opportunities. Marie was passionate about their youth programs so I will be donating a portion of the sales to them.”She hopes that her experience can be an inspiration to others to follow their passion, no matter what stage they are at in life. Her favorite saying is "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”The Adventures of Marie and LeeLee is available on Amazon. There will be a Spanish version available soon.
