In June 2008, sisters Jennifer Melton and Stephanie Weis learned that their seemingly healthy, fit father, Steve Salmon, had been diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer at the age of 59. "By the time they found it, it had gone to his brain," says Weis, 32. He died six months later. Last summer, the two sisters, who grew up in Hanover County and now live in Richmond's West End, decided to write about their father's life and their journey through grief in a book. Published exactly a year after his death, Pink Sky at Night tells their family's story through the metaphor of a lighthouse helping tugboats weather a storm. The book is illustrated with photographs that Melton, 39, took and enhanced with digital painting. "I hope Dad's story will teach someone else to live," Melton says. The sisters will be signing copies of their book at Barnes & Noble stores on May 1, from 1 to 3 p.m., in Chesterfield Towne Center; May 2, from 1 to 4 p.m., in Short Pump; and May 8, from 2 to 4 p.m., at Libbie Place.
