The Magic of Ordinary: A Memoir

A heart-tugging memoir of a Daddy, his daughters, and the power of one good man to change the world…

Melford Johnson is an ordinary man. He has an ordinary job, lives in an ordinary southern Indiana suburb in the 1960’s with his ordinary wife, and his three ordinary daughters. But Melford Johnson is also “Daddy,” a man who can capture magic in the palm of his hand, sprinkle stardust over every occasion, and would pull down the moon for his three little girls just so they could bask in its glow.

As seen through the adoring eyes of his daughter, Missi, Daddy takes the Johnson family on hilarious family adventures. But he also faces challenging situations with grace: delivering his own baby in a tiny bathroom in the middle of the night, winning over a suspicious mother-in-law, and discovering—at his own father’s funeral—that he has a black aunt and an entire black family he never knew.

Whether Mel Johnson is the daddy you had or the daddy you only wished you had, you’ll find yourself falling under his spell in a story that perfectly captures a time when innocence could still grow into optimism and love was all you needed to make magic and turn the ordinary into the extraordinary…

“Melissa Gouty writes the magical story of all our lives in The Magic of Ordinary. If you grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, this is an Our Town for our generation.”—Teresa Medeiros, New York Times bestselling author