The life of Linda Diane Gaddis is one of great joys, amazing trials, love and heartache. As a lifelong educator she has affected the lives directly or indirectly of hundreds if not thousands of young people. Her loyalty and dedication is evident in the lives of those she calls friend. She knows firsthand the struggles of being a single mother, successfully raising two boys in the grind of Chicago’s inner city. Yet the life of Linda Gaddis is also the story of immense faith as this book represents a lifetime of dreams . . . some four decades in the making. A dream that at times seemed to be but a dream deferred . . . never to materialize. However, the publishing of First Fruits represents a new day!

I had known Linda Gaddis for 18 years when I first became aware of how amazing of a poetess she truly was. I had heard drafts of new poems or heard, in passing, parts of almost completed works and it is through these encounters that I truly came to understand the power of the written word. On February 10, 1992, Linda Gaddis dedicated a poem to me entitled, I’m Losing My Son To Himself.’ It was the culmination of her life as a mother, the culmination of me as her son and now on the verge of manhood it was her written way of letting me go. She ended this piece with “you see, my Son will be eighteen tomorrow. A man in his own sight and mind…THE WHOLE WORLD AWAITS! So it is with great pleasure and joy that I write the forward to this amazing book the first of many. It is my sincere hope that all who read her words will be positively affected in some way. I hope that readers of this book will see glimpses of their own, lives playing out in the pages of this book. Linda Diane Gaddis now is your moment, the world awaits you . . . and well it should!

Cavanaugh L. Gray
Director of Business Development
The Entrepreneur Café, LLC
www.ecafellc.com