Herd Midkiff remembers meeting Shannon Anderson, a party-planning, gift giving socialite from East Texas. He had just moved to Dallas after college and working his family's ranch in Midland. A bit shy, he wasn't quite sure what to do with this cute and engaging conversationalist who immediately set his mind at ease. But he knew he liked her laugh. Five years later and three years into a happy marriage of both "settling down" and "big dreams ahead", Shannon was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. The day altered the trajectory of their lives, their marriage, and their expectations. In this touching love story, Herd chronicles their eighteen-year journey. He reflects as a single father, eager to keep the memory of his loving and spirited wife alive, and details the deep love they had for one another and his grief. Our Beating Hearts is about remembering and accepting that often our lives are changed forever in ways we wish they weren't. But as we put the broken pieces back together, healing does come, and we can begin to imagine a new journey that lies ahead. Herd Midkiff is a fourth generation Texan who group up in the wide open spaces of West Texas where he and his imagination had plenty of room to roam free. He has traveled extensively but is most at home on the backroads and out of the way places of his home state. He currently lives in Fort Worth.