Another Winner?

A few years ago, Valerie's book report was selected to represent her school in the Nishinomiya elementary school writing competition. She won that and was awarded plaque by the Mayor of Nishinomiya. Her report then went on to the Hyogo Prefecture round but Valerie never won that. Today, Valerie's book report was once again selected to represent her junior high school. The teachers who selected her report told her that her writing far exceeds the quality of writing one would usually expect of a junior high school student and they selected her without any second thoughts. So, we have high hopes that she may go further than the prefecture round this time.

Valerie has a bit of an advantage because she wrote about Lena Maria's auto-biography, Footnotes, and she has been lucky to meet this incredible woman on two occasions. The first time she - and I - met Lena Maria was backstage at her concert in Ashiya. The headmaster's secretary at that time used to be Lena Maria's secretary so it was through her that we had this honour. Lena Maria very kindly signed one of her CDs for Valerie. We met Lena Maria a second time when we joined her on a tour around Kobe with some selected fans. This time Lena Maria signed Valerie's biographical manga about Lena Maria. I was fortunate to have a third opportunity to meet Lena Maria when she graciously paid a visit to our school.

If you don't know anything about this remarkable woman, then please watch this short documentary. You will never feel bitter about anything in life ever again, and you will realise that impossible is nothing.

Lena Maria