Nancy Emmick Panko, Northwestern Lehigh Class of 1961, met with fellow classmates recently to discuss her writings.

She showed her classmates the cover she chose for her first book “Guiding Missal,” although she has little control of the cover that will ultimately be picked

There is a prayer book, World War II flag, dog tags and a World War I compass in the design.

This book follows many articles published in the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series.

Panko, a registered nurse from North Carolina, brought “My Very Good Very Bad Dog” and “The Joy of Less,” both Chicken Soup books, to the presentation at the Starlight Diner Fogelsville,

Highly motivated, she attended nursing school when she was 35.

She had lost her brother to a brain injury, and in her third year of nursing school she cared for a man who had the same injury.

Panko said she had to “pull herself together” to care for him as it brought back memories of her brother.

The tale she told was of the journey of self and the patient, who survived.

His mother took her to see her son and they found him standing. Shehad talked to him everyday and her voice brought him forward. He recognized Panko by her voice.

“I’m so happy to see you up and about,” she said. He sent her flowers for her nursing graduation with the card “To my Angel.”

His mother believed she was a real angel come to earth.

Panko said a friend told her she had to write that story.

She did, and the story was published in the Christian Woman’s Voice magazine.

Ten months later, the story was picked up for the first of the Chicken Soup stories she had published.

The year was 2014 and the book was “Find Your Inner Strength.”

She said each Chicken Soup book has 101 articles, and hers and subsequent ones, were one in 5,000 submissions received for each book.

When her parents died, she wrote about “A Journey of Healing” and about the black labrador that saved her daughter when she was swimming in the St. Lawrence River.

“Guiding Missal” is 63,000 words, considered a short novel. A novel needs to have 70,000 words.

The prayer book was issued to soldiers after graduating basic training between 1941-45.

Panko, who said the missal has the power of the Holy Spirit, tells about the battles and what soldiers endured during World War II. Her father-in-law, George, who was at the camps in Germany when they were liberated, was the first in the family to carry the missal during military service.

The missal was passed on to his son, Butch, the man who eventually married Panko.

Butch Panko joined the military at age 17. He had an audience with the Pope, and came home early because his mother was ill. In 1964, he had a collision with Elizabeth Taylor at the 1964 Winter Olympics.

The third person to carry the missal, her son-in-law, was in Somalia during Blackhawk Down. His company had been sent to retrieve Michael Durant.

In the epilogue, Panko told what happened to each character, and said often the only explanation was the “Hand of God.”

“I’m at the mercy of my publisher and am contemplating self-publishing,” Panko said. “This is a story that needs to be told.

“I was trying to recreate my father-in-law’s military history. It took a ton of research.

“Each story I write is a tribute to my Lord and Savior.”