While on a trip to England, 42-year-old Mary Ann Shaffer visited Guernsey, an island in the English Channel, near the coast of France.

Thick fog blanketed the island and made travel impossible. Shaffer sought warmth by the hand dryer in the men’s room and read from the books in the Guernsey airport. One of these books, “Jersey under the Jackboot” told of the German occupation of the island during World War II.

Many years later, urged on by friends to write a novel, Shaffer thought of Guernsey.

Her dream to “write a book that someone would like enough to publish” began to take shape, and soon after it was sold to a publisher, 71-year-old Shaffer was diagnosed with cancer.

Too weak to undertake the editing process, Shaffer asked her niece, Annie Barrows, to help.

Barrows presented the revised book to her aunt in December 2007, and Barrows died the following February, a few months before “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” was published.

I find it interesting that the seed of this best seller (recently made into a Netflix movie) was planted in the mind of someone who took advantage of a delay in an airport. (I would have likely slept. Or complained.)

It was encouraged by friends who saw a gift in Shaffer and challenged her to use it. Despite her advancing age, she put into words the story that had rolled around in her for a couple of decades. And finally, when she went as far as she could go with it, her niece laid aside her own interests to finish Shaffer’s book.

I believe there is a lesson in Shaffer’s story for all of us.

Ronny Michel may be reached at rmichel@rtconline.com.