The tragic car accident of Kelly Ripa’s sister Linda Ripa

After Linda Ripa’s accident, she had to find a new calling. While she was bedridden and recovering, someone in her family remembered that Ripa had loved to draw as a young child. “My nickname as a young child was Ladybug, so I drew,” she told the New York Times. At one point, she told Michael, one of Kelly Ripa’s children, a story about a lonely ladybug. It went down well and she wrote it down.

Advertising

“I didn’t think it was anything more than a story to tell Mikey and my son. I wrote and drew a few more,” Linda recalled. But her family insisted that the stories and accompanying illustrations were good. “My dad, my sister and my mom said, ‘These are great. You should publish them,'” she said. Ripa decided to do just that, and she contacted a publisher.

The resulting book, The Ladybug Blues, went on a national reading tour. She was so excited about her new job that she postponed several surgeries until she could travel again. She loved it and said, “It’s so rewarding to go to a reading and see all those little faces light up when you read them a story.” That’s another lesson. “You just have to adapt what you’re doing,” Linda said. “I can’t say I liked having that accident, but slowing down isn’t such a bad thing.”

Advertising