In the mem­oir “Thank You!, Be Ready When the Luck Hap­pens,” the author express­es pro­found grat­i­tude to the numer­ous indi­vid­u­als who con­tributed to the devel­op­ment of the nar­ra­tive. A spe­cial men­tion is made of Deb­o­rah Davis, who has played mul­ti­ple roles, includ­ing that of a col­lab­o­ra­tor, ther­a­pist, and researcher, cat­alyz­ing the jour­ney of writ­ing this mem­oir that began with ini­tial skep­ti­cism. The author acknowl­edges sup­port from David Drake at Crown, edi­tor Gillian Blake, and their agent, Esther New­berg, along­side speak­ing agent Steven Bar­clay for their per­sis­tent belief and care through­out the cre­ative process.

The author recalls recon­nect­ing with cher­ished friends from high school, includ­ing James Lap­ine, Janet Sloat­man Files, Wendy Her­lands Barens­feld, and Chris­tine “Buzzy” Bruck­n­er, after many years apart. They con­tributed mem­o­ries that reignit­ed fond rec­ol­lec­tions of past expe­ri­ences. Oth­er con­trib­u­tors men­tioned are Sarah Ester­ling, Lee Ester­ling, Shawn War­ren, Mar­tine Sharp, Bet­ti­na Thomp­son Stern, T. R. Pescod, Hunt MacWilliams, and Tedd Libath, who shared sto­ries that reflect the dynam­ic his­to­ry of the Bare­foot Con­tes­sa and evoke mem­o­ries of the live­ly begin­nings of the author’s career.

Acknowl­edg­ments extend to Frank New­bold, Susan New­bold, Car­olyn Kast­ner, and Claire Roth, who rem­i­nisced about good times along with the late Dick Erb, rec­og­nized for his influ­ence on the author’s culi­nary style. The author express­es appre­ci­a­tion for the mem­o­ries shared by Chip Gib­son, the first pub­lish­er, along with Pam Krauss and oth­ers who lent steady sup­port through­out the cook­book writ­ing jour­ney.

Long­time col­lab­o­ra­tors Bar­bara Libath and Suzan­na Giu­liano are cel­e­brat­ed for their part­ner­ship in build­ing the busi­ness, along with Cindy Massey, Lidey Heuck, Kristi­na Felix-Ibar­ra, Rose Brown, and Mica Bahn, who all con­tributed cre­ativ­i­ty and inspi­ra­tion, mak­ing the work envi­ron­ment enjoy­able.

A sig­nif­i­cant rev­e­la­tion from this writ­ing process was the recon­nec­tion with the author’s broth­er, Ken. Sur­pris­ing sim­i­lar­i­ties emerged in their child­hood mem­o­ries, lead­ing to a bet­ter under­stand­ing of their shared past. Last­ly, the author express­es immense grat­i­tude to Jef­frey, whose unwa­ver­ing belief and sup­port have been a cor­ner­stone in real­iz­ing their dreams and achiev­ing suc­cess.