Dear Reader,

Today’s guest author is Janet Kintner, a San Diego lawyer, beginning in 1968, and was appointed at 31 to the Municipal Court by the California governor in 1976, the youngest judge in the state at that time. She later became a Superior Court judge. She has three children and four “perfect” grandchildren. She’s married to her second husband, a Canadian.

Her new memoir is, A Judge’s Tale: A Trailblazer Fights for Her Place on the Bench, the true story of a passionately principled young female judge in the man’s world of the ’60s and ’70s who is forced to defend her judgeship against two male challengers in a grueling election–while pregnant with her second child.

You could win one of three copies of A Judge’s Tale To enter the drawing, send an email to caitlin@caitlinhamiltonmarketing.com Please include your shipping address in case you’re a winner. US only.

Welcome to the book club, Janet Kintner…

When I was sixteen, I had my Franklin Delano Roosevelt experience. Roosevelt had a rich and privileged life, but when he got polio at age 39 and began using a wheelchair, those close to him noticed he developed greater humility, empathy, and understanding for others. I didn’t get a lifelong disease, but I had a losing battle with a bucking horse.

I went to a girlfriend’s house outside Tucson to ride horses with Sylvia. She rode her favorite horse, and I rode the rarely ridden horse. As we rode along a seldom used road, a hot rod noisily swerved onto the road and spooked my horse, which threw me up so high, that when I fell down on the asphalt, I had excruciating pain from broken bones in my left arm and shoulder. I couldn’t get up.

Sylvia refused to get off her horse to help me because she wouldn’t be able to get back on. She said I should walk to her house. The pain and shock kept me from being able to think of any better option, so I hobbled to her house, cradling my throbbing left arm in my right hand. It took an eternity.

I had surgery and they put me in a body cast that went from my armpits to my hips and held my casted left arm straight up over my head supported by a post that rested on my hip. My left hand couldn’t move. I couldn’t take a shower for six weeks. I couldn’t fit into my clothes or a car. I kept falling over to my left from the weight. I missed six weeks of high school and sat alone at home doing homework. I was in survival mode, taking one day at a time. If I went out, children were scared of me and asked their mom, “What’s wrong with that lady?”

When I finally got the cast off, my left arm hung down limply, unable to do anything. It was 1961. I had no physical therapist or internet for advice, and I had to figure out how to get my arm and hand working again by myself. It took me months, and I never fully recovered.

But what I learned from this was what it is like to suffer and to be different from other people. And it helped me, as a lawyer and judge, to have understanding and compassion for the people I saw suffering, including the people fighting addiction, the victims of violent crimes, and the parents of murdered children.

— Janet Kintner

You could win one of three copies of A Judge’s Tale To enter the drawing, send an email to caitlin@caitlinhamiltonmarketing.com Please include your shipping address in case you’re a winner. US only.

Thanks for reading with me. It’s so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com