by Len Lear

Dale Dye, who has lived in Wyndmoor for more than 20 years — and Mt. Airy for many years before that — is living proof that one should never give up on one’s dream, a mantra one hears often on Reality TV entertainment shows. Although she is 73 and struggles mightily with memory loss, Dale recently released her first self-published novel, “The Lust of Linda Levy.”

According to her son-in-law, Jason Huber, co-owner (with Jocie Dye, Dale’s daughter) of InFusion Coffee and Tea Shop in Mt. Airy from 2006 to 2012, “A longtime wordsmith, Dale always had the right word for the situation. Now she will tell you that her ‘condition’ comes and goes, and it was incredible she was able to finish the book.”

The book’s heroine, 50-year-old English teacher Linda Levy, meets a handsome, foul-mouthed night manager (“Picture Brad Pitt’s handsomer brother”), and her heart melts like a setting sun. “The blown tire/chance encounter with a young hunk is taken from real life,” confessed Dye. “I was going through my own mid-life angst at the time, so sitting down at the word processor was a logical step.”

Dale’s book is definitely “more racy than people who know me would expect.” It is an undeniable page-turner that is sprinkled throughout with humor. It is based on “a composite of more than one real person” and could definitely be made into a seductive movie. In fact, it reminds me of “Goodbye Columbus,” the 1959 novella by Philip Roth that was made into an award-winning movie. Dale lubricates a traditional template and revives it.

Although “Linda Levy” is Dale’s first and only published novel, before it she wrote "The Donor," a social satire in which a macho lawyer must accept an experimental brain transplant operation to save his life; the problem was that the body donor was an attractive woman. “I tried without success to get an agent for either or both novels,” said Dale. “When I decided to self-publish, I chose to go with ‘Linda Levy’ because I thought the humor and narrative hook would help sell the story. Actually, I knocked out ‘Levy’ in six months or so. ‘The Donor’ took much longer. It just took me a long time to get over multiple rejections and realize that self-publishing is not a stigma.”

Dye, a native of Camden, attended Temple University and graduated in 1965 with a BS in Communications. While there she worked at WRTI, the school’s radio station and was Music Director for one semester.

She later became a clockwork-reliable social worker, beginning with a foster care agency called Children’s Services in Philadelphia from 1968 to 1970 but holding her longest tenured job with Lutheran Children and Family Services (LCFS), finding foster homes for unaccompanied minor refugees from Southeast Asia. She worked there from 1975 to 1995 and developed training programs for foster parents. Her manual, "Living with An American Family," was published internationally by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now called Health and Human Services). From there, she went into the MORDY Program (More Opportunity to Develop Yourself), working with hardcore juvenile delinquents from 1995 to 2001. Among other things, the MORDY work got her into Family Court, appearing on behalf of kids.

“For LCFS,” she explained, “I was primarily involved in recruiting and vetting foster families for, mostly, Vietnamese and Cambodian refugee unaccompanied minors (i.e., boat people). In the early years, when the organization was unsure of its ability to handle the incoming load, I insisted that ‘I will find the families if I have to go knocking on doors!’ That work also involved me deeply in the process of acculturation of these kids. For MORDY, I worked directly with juvenile offenders; here, I also did foster placements and whatever else was appropriate to try to keep them from reoffending.

“The LCFS experience was incredibly gratifying in that our clients had in most cases endured extreme hardship to get to the U.S. and faced enormous challenges once here … The work for MORDY was in some ways more difficult, as some kids were unreachable. I handled intake, meaning an interview to determine which juveniles we would take on as clients. It was gratifying to me that the kids were almost universally respectful, and we were able to turn some around. The toughest time was when one of our clients was killed in the streets.”

Unfortunately, because of memory problems (her family helped her answer questions for this article), Dale is no longer able to drive, play bridge and do other things she once enjoyed. “It is unbelievably frustrating, disappointing and scary,” she admitted. “The only reason I am able to function at all is that I have a wonderful family and set of friends who have been so understanding and supportive.”

What is the hardest thing Dale has ever done? “Natural childbirth without anesthetic. As we waited in the hospital elevator with my first child, they wheeled in a woman in the final stages of labor, screaming, ‘Oh God, the pain. I can't stand the pain! Oh God, please kill me!!!’"

Dale’s husband, Doug, is a retired lawyer. They have a son, Kerry, born in 1974; a daughter, Jocie, born in 1972, and two granddaughters, Jade, 12, and Lydia, 6.

For more information about “The Lust of Linda Levy,” visit www.iuniverse.com.