Real Journeys, Real Stories, Real Healing!
Travel Time Stories with Shannon: Real Journeys, Real Stories, Real Healing
Travel Time Stories with Shannon: Real Journeys, Real Stori…
Travel Time Stories was created from a deeply personal journey—one shaped by life experiences, unexpected paths, and a commitment to healing and growth.

What began as a love for travel and meaningful conversation has grown into a space where real stories are shared, meaningful connections are formed, and healing begins.

Shannon and her co-host Ann share heartfelt conversations with their guests about adventure, healing, resilience, and the moments that shaped them. Whether the journey spans continents or travels the path of wisdom, these stories remind us that travel has the power to connect, inspire, and heal.

Life is a journey and every journey is worth telling.

As the community has grown, so has the vision-expanding into The Story Circle, where listeners are encouraged not only to hear stories, but to reflect on and share their own. They can make new friends, get more involved with the show, gain support, and connect on a deeper level.

TTS is about connection, understanding, and the belief that when we share our journeys, we remind each other that we are never alone.

Whether you’re navigating change, searching for connection, or simply love meaningful stories, you’re welcome here.

So, grab your favorite beverage and join us on the journey because the best stories are the ones we live.
Nov. 13, 2026

What Did Her Family Hide? | Janine Lange, The Women of Cypress Lane

What Did Her Family Hide? | Janine Lange, The Women of Cypress Lane
What Did Her Family Hide? | Janine Lange, The Women of Cypress Lane
Travel Time Stories with Shannon: Real Journeys, Real Stories, Real Healing
What Did Her Family Hide? | Janine Lange, The Women of Cypress Lane

“Some secrets wait a lifetime to be revealed—until the one meant to hear them finally comes home.” How well do we really know our family's history? And what happens when the secrets of the past begin to change everything we thought we knew about ourselves? In this episode of The Author Spotlight Series, Shannon and Ann welcome Janine Lange, author of The Women of Cypress Lane, for a conversation about family secrets, generational connections, second chances, and the importance of preserving t...

“Some secrets wait a lifetime to be revealed—until the one meant to hear them finally comes home.”

How well do we really know our family's history? And what happens when the secrets of the past begin to change everything we thought we knew about ourselves?

In this episode of The Author Spotlight Series, Shannon and Ann welcome Janine Lange, author of The Women of Cypress Lane, for a conversation about family secrets, generational connections, second chances, and the importance of preserving the stories of those who came before us.

When Laney returns to Charleston following tragic news, she finds herself surrounded by memories inside her grandmother's historic home.

But coming home brings more than familiar places and old relationships.

It brings unanswered questions about the deaths of her parents when she was just five years old.

As Laney begins uncovering long-buried family secrets, she discovers that understanding her past may be the key to moving forward.

And along the way, a rekindled friendship offers the possibility of a second chance at love.

🔦 IN THIS AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, WE EXPLORE:

🏡 The inspiration behind The Women of Cypress Lane — What sparked Janine's story of family, mystery, and rediscovery.

📜 Family secrets and identity — How the things we know, and the things we're never told, can shape our lives.

❤️ Coming home and second chances — Laney's emotional journey through grief, discovery, and the possibility of love.

🌿 The beauty and history of Charleston — Why the setting plays such an important role in the story.

👩‍👧‍👧 Generational connections — The relationships between women and the legacies passed from one generation to the next.

📖 Preserving family history — Why remembering the experiences of those who came before us matters for future generations.

✍️ The author behind the book — How Janine's personal relationships, memories, and experiences influence the stories she tells.

One of the most meaningful themes in Janine's work is the reminder that our stories don't begin with us.

We're connected to the generations who came before us—their choices, struggles, sacrifices, and dreams.

And sometimes, discovering their stories helps us understand our own.

📖 FEATURED BOOK: The Women of Cypress Lane
✍️ FEATURED AUTHOR: Janine Lange
🔦 SERIES: The Author Spotlight Series

CONNECT WITH JANINE LANGE:

📚 Find the book: https://link.amazon/B0bFRllCs
🌐 Author Website/Social Media: https://www.janinelange.com/

💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION!

If you could ask one ancestor a question about your family's history, what would you want to know?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

🎙️ ABOUT TRAVEL TIME STORIES

Real Journeys. Real Stories. Real Healing.

Join Shannon and Ann as we explore the journeys that shape us, the stories that connect us, and the conversations that remind us we're never alone.

🌐 https://traveltimestories.com

Every book has a story, but so does the person who wrote it.

Until next time, keep traveling your story and keep making memories for life.

#TravelTimeStories #AuthorSpotlightSeries #WomensFiction #romance #FamilySecrets #charleston #FamilyHistory #AuthorInterview #JanineLange #TheWomenOfCypressLane

https://www.traveltimestories.com/

SPEAKER_00

In the office, where stories collide. When the authors wait, let curiosity guide. All genres invited from forward to unravel the tales at our podcast heartbeat.

SPEAKER_04

Welcome to the Author Spotlight series. This is where we step behind the pages to meet the people who create the stories we love. We'll talk about their latest book, their writing journey, the story behind the story, and probably a few things neither of us plan to talk about. Because around here, the best conversations have a way of taking us somewhere unexpected.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, they do. Today we're putting Janine Lang into the spotlight. Janine, welcome to Travel Time Stories. We're so happy to have you here with us.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_02

So before we dive into your book, love for you to introduce yourself to our audience and tell us a little bit about you.

SPEAKER_03

Well, uh, I'm from just outside, a little south of St. Louis, Missouri, in Cedar Hill, which is a nice little laid-back community in the country. And I have a house full of windows, and out every window you can see the woods. So that's what I like.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Very peaceful and quiet. I am a retired nurse, newly retired nurse and uh nurse educator. So I taught at Western Governors University for the Masters of Nursing Education program for the past nine years. And before that, I was a hospice nurse for many years. And I'm married, and I have three beautiful daughters and two amazing granddaughters. One just started college and one just started high school.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my goodness. Yes. And so since retiring, I have just been able to spend my time following my first passion of writing.

SPEAKER_02

I love that for you.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, exactly. That's cool that you're in Missouri and is too. So well, your novel, uh, The Women of Cypress Lane, and I have the book here for everyone, uh, has a beautiful and intriguing hook to it. It's some secrets wait a lifetime to be revealed until the one meant to hear them finally comes home. That really caught me. And the story follows Laney, and she returns to Charleston after receiving some tragic news, and she's in her grandmother's historic home, and she finds herself drawn into this mystery surrounding her parents' death, and that occurred when she was five. And along the way, she begins rediscovering her past, uncovering family secrets, and reconnecting with someone who may offer her a second chance at love. So, what inspired you to write Lainey's story?

SPEAKER_03

Well, it was one of those things where it just came to me in the middle of the night, which most of my thoughts do. And, you know, I kind of started the story about uh Laney, and then it just kind of snowballed from there and added a little mystery, some intrigue. And I think the thing that I like the most about it was that it follows four generations of women, and that's kind of similar to you know, my situation. My mom is 95, and so there's my mom and me, my daughters, my granddaughters, so four generations there. So I love writing about that and writing about family.

SPEAKER_02

You're so lucky to still have your mom.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, I'm very blessed.

SPEAKER_02

One of the things that caught my attention about your book is how much of Lainey's life has been shaped by something that happened when she was too young to really understand. She's carrying the consequences of a past she doesn't really know. Why did you explore the idea of family secrets and how can they shape someone's identity even decades later?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I think we all have a lot of things that we don't know maybe about our past or that we didn't know how to interpret at the time. And so, you know, later and when it comes to us, we s maybe can see it in a different light as an adult instead of a child. And I think it's also important to know what your past is, where you came from, what your, you know, what kind of shaped the uh the path that you were on. And certain decisions were made that were out of Lainey's hands that did have consequences for her and how they changed her life. And so I wanted her to be able to recognize them and accept them and learn how to deal with them and maybe use them to her advantage going forward in her life.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. So do you believe that uncovering the truth about our family's past can change how we understand ourselves?

SPEAKER_03

I think so. You know, just recently I was in Italy doing research for my next book, and I learned a lot of things that I did not know about my grandfather's family, and it really gave me a different sense of my heritage, who I am, where I came from, where my family started, and uh made me become the person I am today. I understand myself a little bit better. I know I have a deeper understanding of my family and why I do the things I do.

SPEAKER_04

How wonderful that you were able to find those things out while you were in Italy. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_03

It was amazing. The trip was absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_02

I can't imagine.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

We haven't been to Italy yet. So no. Yeah, it's on our list. Without giving away the mystery, what do you hope readers discover about the relationships between the generations of women in this story?

SPEAKER_03

I hope that readers realize that you can learn so much from the generations that preceded you. And I think once, you know, Lainey discovers the truth behind some of the things that happened, why some of the decisions were made, she learns different things like resilience, um, how to make the best out of something, how to um, you know, maybe sometimes you have to change the course that you intended on taking to accommodate the situation that's happening at hand. And I think, you know, her grandmother certainly had to do that because she had to live through World War II and the things that were going on in the country at that time and the things that affected her personally at that time. So I think knowing those things and discovering them can help Lainey see that she comes from a strong family of women.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I like that too. I love yes, I love strong women characters in books. I do too.

SPEAKER_03

And I think too, it's what's amazing is women who found strength that they didn't know they had. Right.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Especially during those times. You're talking about during World War II and things like that when women had to step up and find their strength. Yeah, you know, and carry on because the men were off at war. So the women had to fill in all of those spots, jobs and everything else that men had been doing. So Charleston seems to be much more than just the setting for your novel. You have the historic home, the streets filled with history, and the ocean that provides comfort as Lainey tries to make sense of her life. Why did you choose Charleston and what does that setting bring to the emotional journey?

SPEAKER_03

I chose Charleston because of its charm, because of the hometown feel of the city, and because of the proximity to the ocean, which is it's something important to me. I grew up near the ocean. And I just think the the atmosphere there really lended to the story. I think it brought it a certain sense of warmth and feeling of home.

SPEAKER_02

Charleston is a warm, beautiful historic city.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It's just a really, really wonderful thing.

SPEAKER_03

I thought it would be perfect for a historical romance.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, definitely. Yes, it is the perfect place. I also love that there's a second chance romance woven into the novel. Laney is dealing with grief and unanswered questions, but she's also reconnecting with a friendship that begins to blossom into something a little bit more. What role does that relationship play in helping Lainey move forward while she's uncovering her past?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I think Lainey, you know, she was all alone. Her parents had died, and and now she founds herself alone in this big house. And she really needed some moral support, some uh someone to help her be, you know, when she meets Chase, and she did have that relationship with him from her childhood and his family too. His mother and father played a big important part in her life. And so I think it helped helped give her some confidence that she wasn't alone. She, even though, you know, her family was gone, but she had to make a lot of important decisions, and I think she needed that moral support to help her do that. So it did play a big role in also helping her find herself and her inner strength. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_04

Because friendship, first and foremost, whether you whether it's platonic friendship or love friendship, is very important and helping you have a safety, especially when you're when you're figuring things out and trying to find yourself. Right.

SPEAKER_03

And so much to bounce ideas off of, and you know, not every decision Lainey makes might be for the best. And so sometimes you just need that level-headed outside opinion to to kind of make you see things differently.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, exactly. So there's something interesting about the idea of returning home, you know, sometimes we go back expecting everything to be familiar, only to discover that we're not the same person that we were when we left. So therefore things are different. They're not the same. And what does coming home represent for Laney and how does that change as her story unfolds?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I you know, I it was an unexpected decision for her to make to return home. She she did not have plans to do that. She had a career, and there was just something that changed her mind when she was back in a familiar setting, something that seemed very comforting to her. And I think by going home, she relived some of the feelings that she had throughout her childhood, and she liked that feeling, you know, and and maybe it gave her a comparison to between her life in New York and her life in South Carolina. I mean, those are vast stark differences there. And so that kind of helped make the decision about what she was going to do with her future.

SPEAKER_02

I love that. One of the topics that you wanted to discuss is your passion for bringing the past to life so future generations can learn from it. I think that's especially meaningful because history isn't just something we read about in textbooks. It's also found in family stories, photographs, letters, and the memories that people carry. What sparked your interest in preserving family history and telling stories that connect so many different generations?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I think it comes from my own family. I come from a big Italian family, and um there was a house full of aunts and uncles and cousins all the time, and uh that's that's part of you know what makes me who I am today. And so I I have volumes of family pictures, but was what was important to me was not just looking at the pictures, but wanting to know what were they thinking at the time, what were their thoughts? My grandfather left Italy in 1905, and I just had to know what was going through his mind, you know, when he as a as a 19-year-old leaving his country, moving to one where he didn't even speak the language, where he had a lump sum of $12 in his pocket. And just wanting to to know what shaped their their lives, what decisions did they make and and what were the outcomes because of it? And I think that's important because it helps me, you know, decide some of the hard decisions I have to make because I see, you know, decisions were made based on necessity back then, you know, and when he was in Italy, they were poor, they they weren't able to sustain a house with 13 children. And so, you know, part of the reason why he left was out of necessity. And so what did his life become because of that? Well, you know, he moved to the United States, he met my grandmother, he had 10 children, and they had a beautiful family, and that's part of who I am because of things that happened back then. So I think it's important to know that. And that was part of the reason why I did go back. I wanted to see exactly where my grandfather came from. I wanted to walk the streets that he walked, I wanted to hear the church bells that rang when he walked those streets, and the the feeling was overwhelming. It was just when I heard the bells, I I just looked at my daughter and the tears just streamed down my face.

SPEAKER_02

I can just imagine that moment for you.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh. I love church bells anyway, so especially especially over in Europe, you know, hearing the church bells ring over there is it's so powerful and moving. Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04

What a wonderful experience you had.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. There was a lot of amazing things that happened on that trip. And uh when we when we talk about the next book, I'll I'll expand on that.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I love researching family history, and one thing that I've discovered is that sometimes the smallest details reveal the most about the people who came before us. And yeah, I I just find all of that so fascinating. I've done my family history, I've done Ann's family history for her. It's exciting.

SPEAKER_02

Most of what I thought I knew was not correct. Just I mean, yeah. No. Yeah. Very surprised.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Exactly. So hopefully in a good way. Yeah, it was in a good way. So when you're researching or writing about the past, how do you decide which details and stories are important to preserve?

SPEAKER_03

Um, I look for the ones that are most impactful. Decisions that, you know, had a had a direct effect on families going forward. You know, what was something that maybe changed the course of their lives that if that hadn't happened, you know, they would have gone in in a different direction. So I look for that because I think that's intriguing. And I think, you know, it's that kind of what if um kind of factor that plays into that.

SPEAKER_02

I love your curious nature, Janine.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_02

That's so fun. You mentioned wanting future generations to approach the past with wisdom and respect. What do you hope younger generations can learn from the lives and experiences of those who came before them?

SPEAKER_03

I hope they learn that people live their lives and hopefully, you know, they have families or or whatever uh, you know, path that they take that to do something that's meaningful, that that is important to them, but also is meaningful to other people. I think it's important to have that sense of family or sense of community and just help other people. I think that's so important. You know, this is sometimes the society tends to be me first, me first, or what can I get, or you know, get out of my way. I'm doing this for me. And I I would just wish it would be a little bit more gentler, a little bit more supportive. Um, you know, I belong to the group in St. Louis called the Little Black Book Women of Business, and it is the most collaborative organization, and there's well over 500 women in this in this group, and of course, with that many, there's going to be a lot of overlap of people who are in the same business. There's other writers, there's a lot of you know, real estate agents or insurance agents, but it is the most cooperative group of women. There is no competition whatsoever. We collaborate, we help each other. You know, I have had several people give me a lot of great suggestions and recommendations on how to move my writing forward. And I love that. And I I wish that for this generation that they could see that it's just not all about them, that there is a greater, greater business going on that that that they need to to respect and appreciate. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04

They need to learn to be more collaborative and get their get their face out of their phone for a little bit and see the see the people around them.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And you know, put it down and look at people in the eye. And and I think one of the things that, you know, you can look to the past um is that when there were no cell phones, or even before like television, when there was just like radio or not even that, and people had to talk to each other, they had to communicate, they had to do things for fun. I mean, even when I was a kid in the 60s, we were outside all day long. Don't ask me what we did, but we were never bored. You know, it's insane. Yeah. Because you had to think on your feet, you had to be creative. You had to, you know, we had a uh a lot of woods behind our house, and we had all different kinds of houses and tree houses and forts and things like that. Kept us occupied all day long. I don't know what there is for this generation that are just stuck on their phones, they can't even talk to each other. They will text each other from across the room. Yeah. You know, just talk to each other. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02

I think those social skills are so important too, and I feel like we're losing them.

SPEAKER_03

When I was still in healthcare and still in nursing, I saw it with this new generation of nursing that they did not know how to talk to patients. They just look up everything on their phone and they don't have to have that human interaction, and I think we're losing that. And that's what I try to bring through in in my books is that it's important to have that bond and that connection with human beings, not just something that's virtual that's not going to be there tomorrow. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04

Communication is so important, and you can't learn proper communication skills unless you are talking face to face with somebody.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Ann and I joke about the whole texting from the other room or in the same room thing because uh my son went to school in St. Louis, and Anne's daughter lives in St. Louis, and so she would go and get my son on the weekends, and he would spend the weekends at her house while he was there, and they would literally text each other from room to room inside her house. And I was like, what is happening? That's so funny.

SPEAKER_03

I was like, I do not get that. Well, one of the things that happened when I was in Italy is I did meet one of my cousins for the first time, and she's older, she's in her 80s, and uh she asked me to give me her address, and she said, I want to write to you and write letters to you. And right away her nephew stepped in and said, Oh, no, no, no, Zia, you just tell me what you want to write, and I'll send it to her in an email. And I said, Please don't do that. I would love to have a handwritten letter from her. I would treasure that. Yes. So uh hopefully she does that.

SPEAKER_02

I hope so.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, we talked about this with another guest uh a while back, but we were discussing, you know, communications and things of our time that we miss. And one of the things I miss are handwritten letters. Like I have a stack uh in my closet still in one of my uh keepsake boxes of all the letters I ever got from different people uh when I was younger. I kept those and they're like little treasures to me. I like to pull them out every so often and read them. Again, you know? I love that.

SPEAKER_03

And and that's why in The Women of Cypress Lane I used the diary as a vehicle to the past. Because it was all handwritten.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. So when did you first realize that storytelling was something that you wanted to pursue and inspired you to become an author?

SPEAKER_03

You know, I've been doing it since I was a young girl. Um, I remember just making up stories in my head as a child. I don't even like as young as five or six, one day it was raining and couldn't go outside and just had to look out the window and watch the rain. And instead of just being bored inside, I started to make up the story in my head that the raindrops, once they hit the road, they would bounce up and become a parade. So I envisioned the, you know, the clowns going by and the band going by and the people on horseback going by. And it just it occupied the whole afternoon just thinking and and visualizing this band going down the road. And by the time I was done, the sun came out.

SPEAKER_02

So great.

SPEAKER_03

So it's just something I've always done. I guess it's inherent to me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah you're just a storyteller. Some people naturally are, Janine, and you're one of those. You mentioned how family and personal connections influence the stories that you tell. Are there particular relationships or experiences from your own life that have helped shape the themes you returned to in your writing?

SPEAKER_03

I think it's the the closeness of my Italian family about how everybody just always pulled together. When when somebody was down, you know, five hands reached in to pull that person back up. And that left a big impression on me that, you know, you always have somebody when you have a big family to look to for help if you need it. And so I I like to to write about that because it's something that's very, very precious and important to me. And it's my hope that, you know, I a lot of people can have that. That, you know, you can I I like to write about when somebody was in need and somebody helped fulfill that need for them. Yeah, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_04

So sometimes writing about the past, even through fictional characters, can bring up unexpected emotions. When you were writing The Women of Cypress Lane, did you have any of that experience? Oh, let's see.

SPEAKER_03

I'm trying to think of different scenarios in the book. I think what what brought it back for me was when I described Ivy's house and what it looked like and the different details of the house, the linoleum floors, the doilies on the every little table, the lace tablecloths. That's something that I grew up with. And I saw that in my grandmother's house. And and so I kind of relived that, and it did get a little emotional because a lot of the descriptions there are taken from exactly what my grandmother's house looked like.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I was gonna say that you could be describing my grandmother's house right now.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Gosh, my mom's even when I was a child.

SPEAKER_04

Well, that's true, yeah. Me too as well. I just kind of figured though, that's because, you know, my mom was an older mom. So our house didn't look like my friend's house when I would go to their house because they had younger parents. So yeah. So, Janine, we've talked about family secrets, second chances, and the stories that connect our generations. What we like to do is a little round that we call under the spotlight. And so these are just little quick questions and just go with whatever comes to mind first. Okay. Historic mansion or cozy cottage? A cozy cottage. Me too. Ocean views or mountain retreats. That's a that's a tie. Uh I I would say probably a mountain retreat. Old family photographs or handwritten letters. These are the hard ones. That's that one's too hard. They're the I don't think I can I don't think I can choose between that one.

SPEAKER_02

No.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. If I had to make a choice, I'd say photographs. A good mystery or a sweeping romance. Sweeping romance. Charleston weekend or a European getaway. European getaway.

SPEAKER_03

In a hard uh yeah. It's only been three weeks and I wish I could go back.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, I know, right. Yeah, we feel the same, believe me. If we could move to Europe, we would. Yes. When riding, do you plan everything or let the character surprise you?

SPEAKER_03

I let it flow. Sometimes I feel like I'm in the backseat of a car and I'm just, you know, the passenger. And I let let it take me where it wants to go. Yep, I'm the same way.

SPEAKER_04

I can't plot everything out. If you could sit down with one ancestor and hear their life story, who would you choose?

SPEAKER_03

I would choose my grandfather. There are so many things I didn't get a chance to ask him, or he didn't get a chance to know. He passed away when I just right the day after my 15th birthday. And now as an adult, there are things I wished I'd asked him now.

SPEAKER_04

So I would love to sit down with him. Yeah. It's funny how that happens, right? You don't even think about it when you're younger. And then when you get older, it's like, man, I wish I had known about this or ask about that.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. Yeah. Especially now that I want that I'm writing the book and I need the answer.

SPEAKER_04

Right. Right. So if your life were a book, what would the title be?

SPEAKER_03

My family is everything. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

That's really good.

SPEAKER_05

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02

Janine, we have really enjoyed getting to know you and learning about the inspiration behind the women of Cypress Lane. Are you currently working on another book or any new writing projects you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_03

Yes. So I started writing the book from Naples to Newark, which is the story of the immigration of my grandparents because their story is beautiful. How they met when they came to the United States. My grandmother came five years before my grandfather, and they did not know it, but they lived in Italy. They lived just like 30 minutes apart from each other, but they met each other here. And when my grandfather came here, he stayed at a boarding house that my grandmother's uh sister owned, so she lived there too, and that's how they met. And my grandmother didn't want to have anything to do with my grandfather. Just kept turning him away and turning him away. And then when she realized how sweet he was and what a gentle man he was and how good he was to all the people that knew him, she did fall in love with him and and eventually you know said yes to marry him. They had 10 children, they had a beautiful life. And my mother was the last of the 10 children. There's 20 years between her and her oldest sister. And by the time she came along, her parents, her sisters and siblings were married and gone. So my grandfather lived with us. So we were very, very close. So I started writing that story and to kind of do research. So I went back through the family history. I was able to trace our family back nine generations through the Family Search website. And so I I had pictures that I was looking through. And there was one picture that always fascinated me. And it was in 1957, two years after my grandmother passed away. My grandfather went back to Italy for the first time since he had left. So he had left behind a younger sister that he hadn't seen since she was five. And so he went back to Italy to visit his family and really just meet them again. And they took a picture on a balcony, and it's my grandfather and his sister, and all these people I had no idea who they were. And I had nobody to tell me who they were because everybody was pastor on by then. And so the only thing that was in the picture that would help me figure out where it was was there was a mountain in the background, and in the mountain there was some sort of tower. And I didn't know where it was or anything. So through a series of research that I did on YouTube, on Google Earth, on Facebook, I was able to identify the tower, the town where it was, the name of it, the proximity to where it was from the tower to that house through Google Earth and maps. And they gave me coordinates. And once I started getting closer to finding out who these people in this picture were, I got really, really excited. And I said to my husband, I have to go to Italy. I have to go and research this for myself. And he's like, I agree. You can't let this opportunity pass you by. I found a Facebook page, a group for this town. And I put the information on the page and I said, Hey, I'm just looking for anybody who might recognize somebody in this picture. I'm I'm searching for my grandfather's family. And I waited and I waited, and a couple days went by and a week went by, and then all of a sudden I started getting all these responses. And I got over 200 responses. And then one day I got the one and it said, I'm standing behind your grandfather. That's me. And I found out that this gentleman and his grandfather and my grandfather were brothers. And I discovered a whole entire family that I didn't know I had. And when my daughter and I went to Italy, they had a whole reunion for us. They had this big dinner, and all the cousins were there, and we got to meet them. And as you can imagine, tears were just flowing like crazy. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I was gonna say, I would have lost it.

SPEAKER_03

I did so many times. And also to be in an Italian setting, listening to everybody speak Italian, which was how I grew up. The food uh that they served was exactly the way my family would have made it, tasted the same. And I just sat there and I looked around the table and I said to my daughter, I'm home. I I've come home. This is this is home to me. This is what I I know. So I decided to write a book. It's called The Bell Tower That Led Me Home. And that's the next one that's coming out, and it's the story about how all this happened and all the twists and turns and and coincidences that led me down this path that were just amazing. That and I I just watched it unfold in front of my eyes. And so I'm so excited to write this book. I'm I'm getting there. I'm I'm about halfway through.

SPEAKER_02

Sounds like you're meant to write this book for your family, especially.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, exactly. Yeah. I like I have 32 first cousins. And so I am the only one in the family who has ever documented anything and written things down. Like my aunts, they cook, but they don't write anything on paper. One, because they want to keep their secrets and they don't want to share all the little you know nuances to their own recipes, but two, because they just didn't do that. And and they don't measure, you know, it's a handful of flour. Well, how big is your hand? You know. But so I'm the one who followed them around and took notes and wrote things down. And and then when my mother's oldest sister turned 90 in uh 2001, I did a family history book back then with the information I had at that time. And my cousins loved it because nobody else had done it. They didn't know the story of their family or or who all the aunts and uncles were and cousins. So now I have actually taken that to the next level because I I know, you know, like I said, nine generations back. So I'm writing this for them and their children, and and my my second and third cousins and my granddaughters, just so they all have it. Because if I don't write it, it it will be gone. My mother is the last connection to that generation. And so I I feel it's my responsibility to preserve it.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. Your family's legacy.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So, Janine, where can our listeners find your book and also connect with you?

SPEAKER_03

Well, uh, my website is just JanineLang.com. It is in uh kind of in the revamping phase. So you can find me there. And then very soon I will also be having a YouTube channel that talks all about this journey and how I researched my family genealogy and how maybe other people can can do the same. And uh and there, or I am on Facebook, I am on Instagram, just Janine Lang Author is.

SPEAKER_05

Awesome.

SPEAKER_04

Wonderful. That's great that you're gonna be doing the YouTube channel on helping people or telling your story to help other people learn how to research and do their own. Yeah, very important.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to that. It's a it's a new and exciting experience for me. And I'm just just like everything else, I'm gonna wing it, let it, let it take its course.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Somehow I think you're gonna do great.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Janine, for joining us and sharing your journey with us. It was amazing to hear, and I look forward to reading the new book once it's done and out as well. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you. And to everyone watching again when it comes out.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And to everyone watching and listening, you'll find Janine's book and information in our episode description and on our website, traveltimestories.com, where she'll have a dedicated page so you can learn more about her. And her book will also be on our book recommendation page.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. And remember, every book has a story, but so does the person that wrote it.

SPEAKER_01

So join us each week in the splendor of the off the spotlight. We capture the heart with every story shared. A new world takes light. As we gather tonight.