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The evolution of an extraordinary relationship is meticulously documented in this affectionate – and affecting – personal memoir. The author, Kristine Smith, begins at the beginning (1966), inviting her readers to vicariously tag along and share her twixt-twelve-and-twenty excitement as she casts her eyes on her favorite actor, DeForest Kelley (Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy of STAR TREK) for the first time ever: live, up-close and personal.

Surprisingly, Smith’s cosmic destiny is somehow secured during this initial interaction. Actor Kelley takes a professional interest in Kris within weeks as her writing abilities become known to him by way of a letter she had written him and a school essay she had written about him. The actor begins to cultivate Kris’s personal and creative evolution – beginning in Washington State as a fledgling freelance writer (whose first nationwide article he launches) and continuing through her move to California in 1989 as a Hollywood-bound hopeful; to her eventual establishment as a Hollywood-based executive secretary – continuing even as far as her anxiety-provoking forays into the world of stand-up comedy which she essayed at numerous national STAR TREK conventions. Not known (in advance) and certainly never anticipated by either participant is the amazing “end piece” of their alliance: the poignant and heart-rending events that underscored Kelley’s final weeks as Smith becomes his personal assistant and eventually his caregiver during the last few months of his life.