Shirley Tappin, nee Fortune’, has lived in Trinidad all her life, where she made a career in Human Resources Management at a leading Banking Institution. She comes from a literary family, and in her spare time, wrote a few poems and short stories. Two of her short stories are included in collections by the late Undine Gusseppi, which have been used in schools across the Caribbean. An adaptation of one of her stories is also included in a book published by a company in the United Kingdom for schools in the English speaking-Caribbean, including Belize, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands.

After her retirement, Shirley, a devout Catholic, decided to give of her time and talents to the Catholic Church, where she is still employed in the area of Human Resources at the Chancery of the R. C. Archdiocese of Port of Spain.

Shirley is the mother of one daughter and has one grandson. This book, Courage and Tears is her first novel which she began writing at age sixty-nine.