BOWLING GREEN -- Lois Sonnenberg appears to be a flawless paradigm of the adage "It's never too late."

The Bowling Green resident, who celebrates her 84th birthday Wednesday, also is celebrating the publication of her first book late last year -- a move that already prompted her to start writing a second one.

She worked in her home as a team with her 87-year-old husband, Otis, and Joshua Ebert, a visual communication technology graduate from Bowling Green State University, to put together Grave Tales: A Mother Goose Spoof, a publication in the making for decades -- in her head, through life experiences, and on paper.

The book -- a satirical spin on age-old nursery rhymes -- is not for children, Mrs. Sonnenberg stressed. It was officially launched Dec. 3. A second book signing is scheduled at a Local Writers' Fair from 1-4 p.m. April 14 at the Wood County District Public Library in Bowling Green.

Publishing a book at her age is a feat that doesn't shock many who know her, especially her children.

"Mom has wanted to publish some of her creative writing for many years and I'm not at all surprised that she pulled it off in her 80s. She's a woman with a lot of energy and talent who sets goals and accomplishes them," said her daughter, Meg Gaige, 55, a photographer and agricultural writer for Farm Journal's Dairy Today in New York.

"It's especially apropos that mom and dad pulled off this self-publishing feat as a team -- they've been cheering each other on for more than 64 years."

In the book, familiar nursery rhyme characters travel to the 21st century, only to find their situations stunningly different than they were in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Jack Spratt and his wife become "Fats & Lena Spratt," a couple not so in tune with today's world of high cholesterol and trans-fats; Little Miss Muffet, a child genius of sorts who, despite her intelligence, fails to read up on the perils of poisonous spiders.

Mrs. Sonnenberg's road to authorship is as interesting as it is intricate. Her life experiences, stories from her childhood, and meetings with others prompted the subject of her second book currently in the works, memoirs of her life as a child of the Depression and World War II.

Born in 1928, Mrs. Sonnenberg grew up Lois Benzino in a small New York town near Buffalo. Her two brothers were off fighting in the war and her family ran a modest produce business. She had no real hopes of furthering her education until her best friend in high school suggested they try attending school through the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps program.

In her third year of nursing at the University of Michigan, Benzino met Otis Sonnenberg of Holgate, who was in the Navy. They married in 1948 and moved to northwest Ohio so that he could work on the family dairy farm.

During the 1950s Mrs. Sonnenberg worked as a nurse at small hospitals in Defiance and Napoleon, many times covering nights shifts with no in-house doctors with the exception of emergencies. The work was challenging, but Mrs. Sonnenberg learned much about the medical field along the way, which would later show up in her writing.

With three young children in the early '60s, Mrs. Sonnenberg found it increasingly difficult to work the night shifts at the hospital, so she returned to school at BGSU, earning a bachelor's degree in 1966 with a major in English and minor in French and going on to teach English and French.

"I loved teaching literature, I loved teaching writing, I loved everything about it," she said.

Mr. Sonnenberg gave up dairy farming, and the family moved to the city, with Mr. Sonnenberg taking on a position at the BGSU Bookstore.

She taught first in the Deshler schools and then in the Bowling Green City Schools -- eighth graders through seniors -- helping them discover the power of prose. Persuasive writing. Expository writing. Poetry. Whatever their creative minds conjured up.

She dreamed up different ways for her students to collaborate, to make themselves part of the creative process. They wrote books -- typing them, mimeographing them, writing covers and forwards. The class sat on the floor of the classroom and stapled pages together, with Mrs. Sonnenberg slipping in a poem she wrote for the last page:

"Other students will come

After a split-second summer,

But never again you."

One group of students returned the favor, having a cake baked and topped with the following:

"It's time to leave now,

Filled with nostalgia because,

Never again you."

She wrote several poems and short stories, sharing them with her students or setting them aside for something bigger down the road. She also ran ideas for school past her own children, then in their teens, who grew up surrounded by the world of literature.

"I remember playing word games as a kid while waiting out tornado warnings in the dark, humid basement," Ms. Gaige said. "Mom planned family camping trips to Canada so we could experience Shakespeare in the theater, reading synopses of the plays to us as we covered the long miles in our Chevy."

Eventually, Mrs. Sonnenberg went back to school and got her master's of education degree in reading in 1976. She took a job with the Wood County Board of Education as a language arts consultant, meeting with teachers from school districts and building English programs.

She then took a position with the Ohio Department of Education's vocational division. Mrs. Sonnenberg traveled throughout the state doing workshops in which she helped instructors teach communications through the skill sets the adults already had; for example, learning public speaking by giving a speech on how the brake system of a car works.

Before she retired, she took a part-time job in 1994 as assistant director of adult learners at BGSU, through which she visited vocational schools, factories, libraries, and businesses to provide information about available programs and assistance for adult learners at BGSU.

Meanwhile, more life experiences, ideas, and memories were being stored away.

Still, with all of her background, with all of the ideas swimming around in her head, with the dream of someday being a published author, Mrs. Sonnenberg had not yet written that book.

Fast forward to the 21st century.

"I had been working on this idea for years, and had done some exploring about the origins of nursery rhymes," Mrs. Sonnenberg said. "I thought, what if I brought some of these characters into this century and see what happened to them. And it was not a pretty picture."

She found interesting details in her research: "Ring Around the Rosy" was not actually a child's game, but a verse about the Bubonic plague.

The idea continued to percolate. In 2003 she pursued an illustrator, but when the person she had in mind fell through, the book idea went back on the shelf.

It wasn't until she was diagnosed with cancer a little over a year ago that the former educator sprang into action.

"I didn't want it unfinished," she said. "I was fired up and [the illness] motivated me. I thought 'This will take my mind off it.'"

The Sonnenbergs chose to publish the book themselves, which meant they would be using their Macintosh computer.

She and her husband asked Joshua Ebert, a senior in visual communication technology at BGSU who Mr. Sonnenberg had met at the bookstore, to help. The couple credits Mr. Ebert with making the book a reality; Mr. Ebert -- who calls Mrs. Sonnenberg a "second grandmother" to him -- hands all the credit back.

"I merely contributed by researching and assisting with technical aspects of the book's development," said Mr. Ebert, 23, who graduated in December. "I was able to contribute a minor amount to the content, simply from being an extra set of eyes and a fresh perspective when proofing or reworking material. … However, all of the brilliance and creativity are exclusively hers.

"Many of the things she has accomplished at 83 are things that most other people her age might have run from. She is someone who looks challenges in the face and takes them head on."

They used CreateSpace, an online self-publishing portal, and the trio sat at a computer in Mrs. Sonnenberg's "office" -- the kitchen nook -- or in the bright living room that looked over Mr. Sonnenberg's prized water garden.

There were late nights, questions, obstacles, physical interruptions as Mrs. Sonnenberg fought her illness (and won by the way). Mr. Sonnenberg prepared for a knee replacement. There were days "when we had some rough spots where we thought will we ever get this done, but in the end, we had so much fun," Mrs. Sonnenberg said.

Mr. Sonnenberg sums up his role in the project as one of encouragement with small tasks, like "keeping the computers and printers running."

"I think it's been good for her. She's been interested in writing and teaching all her life," he said.

Together, the trio finished the book in what Mrs. Sonnenberg estimates as six months.

Or about six decades.

But who's counting?

Lois Sonnenberg will be one of several authors at a Local Writers' Fair at the Wood County District Public Library, 251 N. Main St., Bowling Green. The fair will be Saturday, April 14 from 1-4 p.m. Her book is also available for sale on Amazon.com.

Contact Roberta Redfern at rredfern@theblade.com or 419-724-6081.

First Published March 25, 2012, 4:15 a.m.