Gary Campbell was born on a farm, the second of five children, near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin in February 1954. After graduating from high school in 1972, he enlisted in the US Air Force. The Air Force provided electronics training and a chance to see the world. Shortly after meeting Cynthia (Cindi) Grace in Omaha Nebraska in 1987, Gary realized that Cindi had stolen his heart, but with her medical problems, knew that she would not be able to accompany him on his next overseas Air Force assignment. He left the Air Force and accepted an IT position at a major railroad based in Omaha. As Cindi's health began to fail, she often talked about wanting to write her life story but she was not confident in her organizational and writing skills, so didn't think that she could write a book. After Cindi passed away in October 2008, Gary was going through her things and found that she had been saving the calendars used to record her medical appointments. Calendars for 21 of their 22 years of their marriage were located. The more that Gary looked through these calendars reminiscing, the more he realized that Cindi had left him the notes that he needed to write her story for her.
