Publication Date: February 14, 2023
Do you ever wonder who you really are? Richard Cole was front page news a few weeks after his birth in 1944, but this was something he never knew. He did know he was adopted and he did wonder who he really was. But, as a young adult, he wondered much more about finding success, a simple goal that seemed so elusive.
He was 19 when he married his high school sweetheart and took off, full speed, into the adult world. Harsh reality and his failure to focus on long-term goals made his desire to succeed just an unlikely dream.
He finally took control of his life and made the climb up to a nice middle-class life. Along with his wife, two really cute kids, and a new suburban home, they were the picture of a perfect little family. Then the dream evaporated and Richard’s life began a downward spiral that ended with him alone and subsisting on food stamps and unemployment checks. But Richard had met someone on his way down, someone who stuck with him during the bad times. She gave him a reason to keep trying, and hope that things would get better.
This lighthearted autobiography takes you along on Richard’s quest to find success in life and shares his discovery of the distant secrets that surrounded who he really was.
What begins as a homework assignment to write a life update for his class reunion website serves as the catalyst for Richard Cole to write his autobiography.
Titled Distant Secrets, the book is neatly arranged into 23 chapters, kicking off with his adoption in 1946 at age two. Told that his birth parents were both deceased, Richard never gave much thought to his origins.
His story details a relatively normal life from childhood to adulthood. He includes some rather humorous scenarios, such as the night he drag-raced and an adventure in the caving club.
The events of his life flow easily, much like he is having a personal conversation with readers. We get a front-row seat as he experiences love and loss, finds success with a career, and builds a family.
Along the way, he revisits his roots and uses advanced technology to find answers about his birth, revealing secrets. The photos peppered throughout the text are interesting additions.
Distant Secrets tells the story of an ordinary man living an everyday life who finds new family connections late in life.
Richard Cole held a wide variety of short-term jobs until his late thirties. He finally settling down with Motorola as a computer systems analyst and later a data center manager. During that period, he turned his wild bird feeding hobby into a little business and went on to opened his first Bird Watcher Supply Company store in 1988.
Richard’s wife, Nancy, operated the retail store and Richard continued his corporate job, helped at the store part-time and worked to perfect his special blends of wild bird feeds. He left the corporate world in 1990 to open their second retail store.
The Bird Watcher stores grew to five locations and Cole’s Wild Bird Products was formed to produce and distribute their bird feeds which now attracts a national following. Richard and Nancy sold their retail stores when Richard turned seventy. Cole’s Wild Bird Products is still owned and operated by the Cole family.
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