When something is on your heart, it’s best to answer the call. And that’s exactly what Aiea resident Danielle Lum did.<\/p>\n
Her work, “A Mother’s Lesson,” was featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Power of Forgiveness. <\/em>It relates the 1987 story of her brother Bully’s passing and how her mom (Lorraine Lum) handled the situation with a caring heart.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n Lum recalled seeing the series’ call for entries right around the three-year anniversary of her mother’s death.<\/p>\n “I put the story together, and I thought it would be nice to share,” she added.<\/p>\n After entering her short story, Lum completely forgot about it until about four months later when she heard from the publishing company.<\/p>\n “I didn’t expect it to be in print,” she said, “but it was so emotional.<\/p>\n “It was almost like being able to share a part of me that I hadn’t seen before.”<\/p>\n Upon seeing her written work in print, Lum cried.<\/p>\n The waiting period was a rollercoaster ride of emotions.<\/p>\n “They told me that my story might be in, and then they told me that I got narrowed down, but it still might not go in,” she recalled.<\/p>\n But in November, Lum was notified that her story made it to press.<\/p>\n “It was like this secret,” she explained, “something that maybe wasn’t going to come true, so I couldn’t tell anybody.”<\/p>\n When she got the confirmation, it was as if “a dam burst.”<\/p>\n “I couldn’t tell enough people about it,” she added.<\/p>\n Lum’s love of writing started in elementary school when she attended Kamehameha Schools at Kapalama.<\/p>\n She explained that she wrote journals about her life, short stories and fiction. “And they kept telling us to read, read, read.”<\/p>\n Thousands of writers submitted short stories for consideration, and Lum’s is one of about 200.<\/p>\n “Just to know my mom’s story was that important to them to choose is a tremendous honor,” she admitted. “I would encourage people to love and honor the people that they have in their lives.<\/p>\n “Everybody has something to teach us.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When something is on your heart, it’s best to answer the call. And that’s exactly what Aiea resident Danielle Lum..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-west-oahu-news"],"yoast_head":"\n