Your Story Isn't Over with Valerie Thurston
Sep 16, 2026
Love, Loss and Legacy
Valerie Thurston never planned to write a book. Now she has. She's 78 years old and working on the sequel!
After her husband, Billy, died 17 years ago, she was left with a house full of memories and a story that would not leave her alone. For years, she carried it quietly. Then, little by little, she began to write.
That story became Food Poisoning: A Family Saga of Love, Betrayal, and the Fight for Legacy, a novel about the Patterson family, whose food distribution company is the heart of their small town. When a sudden illness exposes deep cracks inside the family, one widow is forced to fight for what her husband built and decide what legacy really means.
In this conversation, Valerie joins Yvonne and Cat to talk about the long road from grief to the page, and what it takes to honor a story that has been waiting inside you.
They talk about giving yourself permission to begin, even when you do not feel ready. Valerie shares what 17 years can soften in grief, what it cannot erase, and how you keep getting up each day after losing the person you built your life with.
They also discuss the self-publishing journey, the courage it takes to bring a deeply personal project into the world, and why legacy may not only be something you leave behind. Sometimes, it is something you protect.
This episode is for anyone carrying a story, a loss, a dream, or a second chapter that has been waiting for the right time.
Maybe readiness does not arrive all at once. Maybe it begins with one honest page.
Watch it on YouTube
Valerie Thurston is a passionate storyteller drawn to family sagas rich with love, loss, betrayal, and the enduring promise of hope. She and her husband raised their two sons in Wallingford, CT, where family life revolved around ice rinks, the halls of Fairfield Prep, and the greens of The Farms Country Club. Now living in Bradenton, FL, Valerie spends her days playing bridge, biking, painting and cherishing time with her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren — continuing to find inspiration in the bonds that connect generations.
Get the book -- Food Poisoning: A Family Saga of Love, Betrayal, and the Fight for Legacy
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