Our Own Westside Love Story: With Words from Tony to Marie Including Poems Born of Enduring Love

A lifetime of profound experiences and constant growth is best shared with someone committed to your well-being. Now in his eighties, Anthony R. Balista offers an ode to his late wife, Marie, with whom he shared a life for thirty-three years. Our Own Westside Love Story is a touching memoir and collection of poetry, expressing Balista’s reflections about pivotal moments of their marriage and lessons from the transformative power of love.

Balista relates the challenges he and Marie faced in their relationship: navigating the loss of a child, building a successful business, raising children, and caring for elderly parents. In prose and poetry, Balista conveys how they faced everyday struggles while maintaining a solid and lasting bond borne out of respect and devotion. Through it all, the couple endured the hardships by learning to communicate effectively and harnessing the ability to talk and think through difficult decisions together.

Balista shares his personal reflections and experiences in a down-to-earth and heartfelt way through emotional language, vivid imagery, and poetic elements. Our Own Westside Love Story is a very personal work, undoubtedly a cathartic project for the author, a military veteran with several deployments. From the semi-cursive font used for the document to family photos, the reader is invited to witness a story of resilience and unwavering love. Readers of all generations have lessons to learn from the memoir, including the hard work of making a relationship work.

Like any family man of his time, Balista focused on his work as a systems engineer before transitioning to entrepreneurship. The author does not paint over the hard parts; he emphasizes how open and honest communication has strengthened their marriage. Every entrepreneur can relate to the challenges of balancing work and family life and the all-too-important reminder of always prioritizing family and making sacrifices for loved ones.

Beyond the lessons in overcoming obstacles in a decades-long marriage, Our Own Westside Love Story is also a testimony to hope and resilience after loss and grief. After the passing of his beloved Marie, Balista recounts his experiences navigating the devastating loss and coming to terms with facing life alone. He bravely shares about the emotional turmoil and coping mechanisms, such as maintaining a weekly ritual of taking bouquets of fresh flowers to Marie’s grave.

The author turned to writing as part of his ongoing process of dealing with grief and keeping Marie’s memory alive. In time, hopelessness and despair shifted toward acceptance and peace. Balista’s resilience is a comforting reminder that healing and solace are possible even through unimaginable grief.