Autor: Valerie Bell

Valerie Elaine Bell grew up in the Bronx (on Boston Road), New York, went to the High School of Fashion Industries, graduated from Morris High School, married Edward Smith, and had a daughter named Crystal. She worked at Chase Manhattan Bank, changed careers, and worked in retail stores, such as Macy’s, Petrie, Liz Claiborne, and Lane Bryant. Valerie moved to North Carolina in 1998, where she met David C. Bell Jr., who was a Vietnam veteran. They got married in 2002. She got her bachelor of science degree in criminal justice from Methodist University in North Carolina in 2009 and her master’s degree from the University of Phoenix, also in criminal justice, in 2011 at the age of fifty-eight. Valerie decided to write a book about Buddy Bell, a dog they adopted that became a service dog to a Vietnam veteran and her late husband, David C. Bell Jr.