Two-year 'Honeymoon' started with residents' advice.

Book signings aren't unusual at a major store like a Borders, Barnes & Noble or even a Wal-Mart. But it's not every day you see one at a long term care facility.

Author Franz Wisner and his brother and travel partner, Kurt Wisner, dutifully supplied their John Hancocks to the duo's 'round-the-world memoir, Honeymoon With My Brother, during an impromptu book signing at Eskaton Village, an assisted living, independent living and rehab facility in Carmichael, Calif.

But this was more than a mere book signing. It was a sense of closure and a lesson in how families can offer unforeseen opportunities to invigorate facilities and residents' days.

The signing drew a lot of aged fans who knew the Wisners for more than just their book. The duo's grandmother, LaRue Daulton, happily spent her last years at Eskaton, and she and others there helped encourage grandson Franz rebuild his life after being dumped 10 days before his wedding in 1999 and demoted at his job as a Southern California political lobbyist a week later.

Since everything had been paid for, Franz went on his scheduled honeymoon vacation to Costa Rica--taking his brother Kurt. A real estate salesman in Seattle, Kurt was recently divorced and happy for a change of pace, according to Franz.

It went so well that the two brothers extended the vacation--for about two years. They quit their jobs, sold their homes, gave away their extra clothes and furniture, and ended up visiting 52 (mostly Third World) countries.

But before leaving, the brothers unveiled their plans to LaRue and other residents at Eskaton. "(Her) generation, unlike our parents' generation, was supportive of the trip from the get go," Kurt said. "Our parents' generation asked when we were going back to work. (The residents of) Eskaton asked where we were going next."

In the book, Franz noted the residents "endorsed the voyage with enthusiasm and a hint of envy.... The seniors grasped it immediately, telling us again and again, 'I wish we had done that when we could.' Those at the end of their journeys embraced ours."

LaRue's one request was that the brothers send her a postcard from every country they visited. The postcards came; LaRue kept a map in her room and tracked the brothers' progress with pins.

In 2002, the trip ended where it began--at Eskaton Village, with the brothers visiting Grandma LaRue on her 100th birthday, shortly before she died. At that point, the journey became literary, as Franz spent a year writing Honeymoon with My Brother. The book debuted in February, accompanied with the book signing tour.

Franz dedicated Honeymoon to Kurt and LaRue. "She was very well-thought of here. She always had something nice to say," Eskaton Village Administrator Marilyn Kennedy said. "A lot of the residents remember her and were her good friends."

Sony Pictures Entertainment plans a movie based on the book. A first draft has been written; LaRue will be as important a character in the film as she was in life, according to Franz. "We hope they get somebody great to play her," he said. "She was the real star of the book."