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She laughed to keep from crying, and it became a way of life as she enriched millions of lives, including mine.

Though she's been gone since April 22, 1996, Erma Bombeck lives on and will live on for generations because she not only laughed to keep from crying but she turned that laughter into words to uplift and feed the spirits of millions.

She laughed to keep from crying because her tears began early when her father came home from work one day, went into the hospital, and died the following day. She was only nine years of age.

Erma was left to a mother who grew up in an orphanage, the same as I, after the death of my father. She married when she was only 14 years of age. She saw her mother go bankrupt, losing all of their worldly possessions. Yet Erma was strengthened.

She was strengthened by using her talents, by honing her skills as a writer that began in a Dayton, Ohio, junior high school paper. She found humor to be a way of dealing with her life, of coping with a stepfather whom she long resented before she finally let go and realized how much he loved her as his own.

She first wrote obituaries, and once commented that she could make them die in alphabetical order. She wrote for a local newspaper before gaining national syndication.

I, too, wrote to keep from crying after I suffered a nervous breakdown in Mountain Home, Ark., after one too many moves as a minister's wife in 1981. I wrote to survive.

And I wrote to Erma Bombeck because I instinctively knew that I needed a mentor, someone far more successful than myself who would encourage me in my wild pursuit as a writer. She always wrote back, herself, not through a secretary.

Writing to Erma became a turning point in my life! With each letter I was strengthened. I jumped for joy! I went into orbit with her words of encouragement.

Once she said, "If you have talent, it can't be held down." Another time she said, "Just think what you could write if you gave up defrosting and flushing." And she was known to say "If you do housework right it will kill you!" She also said, "Nothing would please me more than seeing Sarah Hudson Pierce's picture on a book jacket."

It happened.

Although I'd published numerous poems and columns for publications that paid in copies only, it wasn't until late 1985 that I finally sold my first poem for $5. I sent her a photocopy of that check; she quickly wrote back and told me that I'd inspired her February 26 1986, syndicated column. I was ecstatic! I knew I'd make it with her encouragement.

Erma Bombeck made a difference to everyone she touched. She knew what she was doing. She lives on!

- Sarah Hudson Pierce

Sarah Hudson Pierce is a syndicated columnist, the author of five books and the host of her own television talk show for nine years. She is president of Ritz Publications, a company she founded in 2002.