Just the Write Words

by Sandy Juhola

One cannot help but read with avid interest Sandy Juhola’s Just the Write Words, a conglomeration of a lifetime’s worth of tidbits of wisdom and inspirational quotes culled from greeting cards that the author herself made for friends and family members.

Having imagined how difficult it must have been for the author to come up with this collection of veritable nuggets of inspiration, it only magnifies the zeal and dedication that the author exerted to, and in her own words, “uncover bits and pieces of words written on the backs of envelopes, crumpled cocktail napkins, lined notebook paper, sticky notes…[to] capture a fleeting thought that might escape me and be lost forever.” Through her writing, the reader can sense that the author had the intention of encapsulating her life and what she has achieved in it between the unforgiving pages of a book. There is not a single line in the book’s 13 chapters of greetings that the reader will not respond to or tug at her heartstring. A bonus of a whole chapter of breakthrough poetry made by the author and her family caps off the reader’s experience. The author may have originally meant to produce a guide for greeting cards but the book she has cobbled together achieved that and much more

It reimprints in the reader the heady days of youth and childhood, the sweetness of love and friendship, the despair of loss, and the constant promise of hope. What gives the book life is the reader’s unmistakable feeling of a tap in the back, that outpouring of affection, and the constancy of one’s true friends and family. You will find the greetings very useful, though, and appropriate in their content. All in all, a one-of-a-kind greeting cards guide and book that inspires…

– The Moving Words Review

Official entry: The Most Moving Book Award, Jan. 3, 2022

About the Author

Sandy’s love of writing has taken her down many avenues, including poetry, children’s stories, writing and directing children’s productions at Mountainview Christian Church in Gresham, Oregon. She enjoyed her commission to write verses for “Precious Moments” greeting cards and published her own line of cards, “Sincerely by Sandy” in 1982.

Encouraged by friends to “put them in a book”, she ventured on a treasure hunt, uncovering bits and pieces of crumpled papers tucked away in long-forgotten boxes. This collection spans over 70 years of writing and designing cards for friends and family. May you find inspiration in this book.