Never give up; never stop trying. If anyone is a testament to that it’s Joan H. Carter, who published her first book, a memoir about her life with the man who was the father of her children, just before her 99^th birthday.

The book had been in the works, at least in her mind, for decades, but life happens, and she never really got around to publishing it.

Carter died on July 22, but her book still saw the light.

Carter had been part of Gainesville’s writing community for decades, often as an editor, a Writer’s Alliance of Gainesville (WAG) board member, or a volunteer for WAG activities.

For years, she had worked on a memoir with her WAG critique pod, a small group of writers who meet twice a month to review each other’s work. But when Carter went into hospice care as she neared her 99^th birthday, she voiced her wish to see her book published.

Friends and family rallied to the request, and Carter’s first book, “John Anderson: The Father of My Children,” debuted on July 29, Carter’s birthday. She had two children with John Anderson — Carol Susan in 1948 and Jack in 1950.

“When Joan was recently hospitalized, she texted me and asked if I would help her publish her book,” said friend and author Susie Baxter. “Having read the manuscript in the critique pod, I knew the story was exciting, and I texted back that I would be happy to do so.”

Carter’s second cousin, Gay Marie Logsdon, who lives in Tennessee, also got in the mix. After years of being out of touch, the two reconnected.

“Joan first found me in 2021 through Facebook, and we quickly became friends,” Logsdon said. “Her mother, Juanita Huntley, knew my mother, father (and his siblings), and paternal grandparents. Joan stayed with my grandparents for a month when she was eight.”

Carter and Logsdon quickly made up for lost time, especially over their writing, as Logsdon is also an author. Carter invited her to join her critique group, and they shared comments about their writing.

“Joan’s final reflections gracefully express the compassion and equanimity she found long after her troubled marriage to John ended in divorce,” Logsdon said. “Definitely, a compelling read.”

As a teen, Carter wanted to write political commentary like Walter Lippman. Instead, she pursued a career that included business analysis and computer modeling. But she had a keen interest in civic affairs and frequently commented in her letters to the editor in local publications.

Carter lived much of her adult life in California, where she did remarry. Eventually, she and her late second husband, race car driver turned writer Jay Carter, headed to Florida.

“My husband and I, both interested in writing, moved to Gainesville in retirement in 2003 when we discovered the dynamic writers’ community here,” Carter wrote in a comment about an article published by Mainstreet Daily News.  “We had looked for writers’ groups in other university cities. None came close to what has become the Writers Alliance of Gainesville.”

Carter also wrote poetry, and one of her haiku was published on July 21 in the week’s edition of The Weekly Avocet, a publication dedicated to nature poetry.

A traditional haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count that often focuses on images from nature. Carter’s haiku reads like this:

Dim dawn, yellow tubes—

one with paper, other none?

Wings burst past! Wren nest!

Neither cancer nor old age kept Carter from realizing her dreams, but she exceeded her expectations by publishing the haiku and her book in her final days.