Nantucket Sisters

Nancy Thayer on the inspiration for Nantucket Sisters
During the thirty years I’ve lived on Nantucket, I’ve seen new people move to the island, and old friends leave. An island is an odd place to live, especially this island, so crowded in the summer when the beaches are golden, so lonely in the winter when gale force winds blow. I’ve watched my children, my friends’ children, and my godsons grow up. I’ve seen friendships and romances bloom and fade.
My inspiration for writing Nantucket Sisters was a special friendship between my daughter and her best friend Sara. The two met at the age of five in Williamstown, Massachusetts. When I married Charley four years later, we moved to Nantucket and Sam was heartbroken to leave Sara. But Sam always went to visit Sara, and Sara came every summer to visit us. Even once they headed off to college, Sam bound for Smith and Sara for Trinity, each often made the short drive to visit the other.
More years passed. Sara met Aaron, a musician. Sam was maid of honor at the wedding. But soon Sara and Aaron moved out to the west coast, to Oregon. The drive wasn’t so short anymore and Sara stopped coming to visit in Nantucket. Between her job and Aaron’s course load in graduate school, Sara couldn’t make it to Sam’s wedding a few years later. Well, I thought, there you are: time—-and men—-can weaken or even end a relationship. But during all the years and miles and different lives between them, Sam and Sara continued calling, emailing, and visiting when they could. They have two boys of the same age, and the boys are good friends.
Watching this friendship evolve over the years sparked the idea of a book about two girls who meet when they are five years old and remain friends through all sorts of life changes. That book turned into Nantucket Sisters.
When Nantucket Sisters was published in 2014, Sam was pregnant with her fourth baby, her husband was running a lab and teaching full time at U.Mass/Amherst, and they had three children, aged eight, six, and four. The other births had been, if not easy, normal. This time, there was a chance of pre--eclampsia, and Sam’s labor had to be induced early. I got out to Hadley as fast as I could.
And so did Sara! When Sara heard the news, she packed her bags, flew to Hartford and drove up to Hadley, where she bought groceries and swept into the house like a young Mary Poppins. Within minutes of setting down her bags she started a hearty vegetarian chili. She entertained the children and took care of them while I drove to the Holyoke Birthing Center to see my daughter and her husband and their healthy new baby. The next day, Sara visited Sam herself and brought her homemade vegetarian food and balloons. The girls had a good long cry.
So did I, looking through old pictures of Sam and Sara throughout the years. Here were Sam and Sara playing with dolls in Williamstown. And there they are building sand castles on the beach in Nantucket. They both looked so beautiful at Sara’s wedding, and Sara was all that was missing from Sam’s. Now I have pictures of Sara hugging Sam at the hospital, celebrating a new member of our family. I look forward to many more photos—-and inspiration for books—-to come.