SuperHeroine: Maryanne Damron Cappelluti
By Diane Perkins

The Wet Noodle Posse received some terrible news recently. One of our own, Maryanne Damron Cappelluti, passed away Jan. 7. We all agreed she should be this month's SuperHeroine.

For the last several years, Maryanne suffered from scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease of the connective tissue. It causes thickening and hardening of the skin and organs of the body, and the most serious form leads to death. Maryanne had the serious form.
 

In many ways, Maryanne was just an ordinary woman - a wife and mother of one teenager, one pre-teen. She lived in an ordinary neighborhood and did ordinary things like attend her children's sports events, visit neighbors and cook for barbeques. But since 1994, she'd battled this disease that can attack almost every organ of the body, bringing great pain and fatigue. It often robbed Maryanne of being able to do the ordinary things, and it robbed her of her potential to be extraordinary.

Maryanne was an extremely talented writer. In addition to being a finalist in the 2003 Golden Heart contest, which made her a member of the Wet Noodle Posse, she won the 2003 Molly Contest and the Spring into Romance Contest with a wonderful story, Bachelor #2. The story was a romantic comedy about a game show in which a reluctant hero has to pick a woman from the audience to go on a wilderness trip with him. He picks the most reluctant-looking woman, with hilarious results. It was a tale to remember, one that would surely have sold if its targeted line hadn't been discontinued. Maryanne had two other books she was working on as well, two other tales with equal promise.

I like to think Maryanne's writing life started to flower in 2001 when she attended the Romance Writers of America National Conference in New Orleans. I had known her for a couple of years through All Of Us, a half-Australian, half-American e-mail group, but the conference was the only time I was with her in person. Melissa James (Silhouette Intimate Moments and Romance author), one of the Australians in All Of Us; another Australian, Leisa O'Connor; Karen Anders (Harlequin Blaze author); and I shared a room, and Maryanne hung out with us when she was not with her hunky firefighter husband (who turned heads wherever he went and came with her because of her health, I think now). With Maryanne and my roommates, I had the most fun I ever had in my life. Maryanne had us laughing so hard it hurt.

At that conference, she was terrified to interview with an editor. The editor had to clasp Maryanne's hands to get through it, but Maryanne charmed her. She charmed two editors at that conference, in fact, and they predicted she would become a successful author.
 

Maryanne's health did not permit that, however. She continued to write through to 2003 - leading to her wonderful success in contests - but she did not attend the 2003 RWA Conference, and afterward, in spite of requests from editors, she was never able to make that extra step toward publication. I believe her health was an important factor, as was the death of her mother, a loss Maryanne took very hard.

Maryanne had other extraordinary talents, although she tended to hide her every light under a bushel. She was a talented musician and songwriter. She was an excellent cook. One of her latest diversions was playing online poker, and she was extraordinarily good at it. She was a good mother; she loved her children with the fierceness of a mother bear.

Now that I look back on it, I think Maryanne must have suffered much more than she ever let her friends know. There were times her fingers hurt too much to write. There were times she withdrew. And there was the horrible time last year when she hovered near death for weeks.

But she had a reprieve, more time to be with her family, to re-connect with friends. I talked to her a couple of times during this period. The last time was the beginning of December, when she made a deal with me to room together at next summer's RWA conference. By then, I was hoping it would be true.

It was not her talents that made Maryanne a SuperHeroine; she'd not had the time to bring them to fruition. Maryanne was a SuperHeroine because of her extraordinary gift for making people feel good in her presence. She had the gift of bringing joy to others, even though her own life included much suffering. She was like a fireworks display - bright, beautiful, meant to delight, but gone much too soon.
 

Diane's friendship with Maryanne spanned the most exciting times of Diane's career, her own Golden Heart success and her first sales to Mills & Boon and Warner. Visit Diane's Web sites at www.dianeperkins.us or www.dianegaston.com.

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