Heather Lende is the obituary writer for the Chilkat Valley News in Haines  where she has lived with her husband for over 30 years.  A Middlebury College graduate with an MFA from UAA, she is a former contributing editor at Woman's Day, a columnist for Alaska Dispatch News, and author  of Find the Good:  Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small Town Obituary Writer (2015), Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs (2010), and NY  Times bestseller, If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name:  The News from Small-town Alaska (2005).