"If a love had a voice and could tell us its story, it would be this one by Frye Gaillard. As Gaillard recounts the extraordinary life of his wife, Nancy, he honors her in revealing her heroism as a teacher, chronicling her resilience, and portraying the courage of her everyday choices and actions. In spirited and generous prose, Gaillard offers us a peek into a life so well-lived, a life so full of courage and generosity, that it changes us just by reading about her." -Patti Callahan Henry, Author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis, winner of the Harper Lee Award
"Both intimate and expansive, Live As If is a tender and moving portrait of an inspiring teacher, a vibrant and nurturing marriage, and love steadfast against illness and loss. Frye Gaillard's life journey with Nancy, until her passing in 2018, takes us from Charlotte, N.C., during the desegregation of the 1970s, through the backsliding "re-segregation" of the 1990s, to the education department of University of South Alabama in Mobile, where Nancy, forever committed to "reaching every child," mentored a new generation for the classroom. The author, a celebrated journalist, puts facts in the background, though, and speaks from the heart, "love," as he writes, being the "perfect lens" to tell this poignant and uplifting story." -Roy Hoffman, winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award, author of the nonfiction Alabama Afternoons, and the novels Come Landfall and Chicken Dreaming Corn
"Frye Gaillard bestows on readers the best gift a book can give, the illusion that we all knew Nancy Gaillard ("Mrs. Schoolyard") as intimately as her family, friends, colleagues, and students did. He has also written an instruction manual: how to live, knowing that (Nancy's words) "little things matter." Little things, like empathy, courage, love of adventure. I read this book in one sitting. It's that graceful, sincere, and endearing. In fact, Life As If does the almost impossible; it manages to be heartbreaking and life affirming, both."-Judy Goldman, winner of the Sir Walter Raleigh fiction award, author of Together: A Memoir of a Marriage and a Medical Mishap
