Alan Jackson recently took to Instagram to share how proud he was of his daughter, Mattie Jackson Selecman.
Jackson’s daughter, who is an author, recently sold over 20,000 copies of her book, Lemons On Friday. The book tells the story of how Selecman’s husband died after sustaining a traumatic brain injury as well as Selecman’s journey to trust God during her grief, according to Amazon.
In posting to Instagram about his daughter’s accomplishment, Jackson said he was “so proud” of her for “sharing her story.”
“So proud of our daughter @MJSelecman for sharing her story,” Jackson wrote. “Congratulations Mattie on 20,000+ copies sold of LEMONS ON FRIDAY! We love you ! Mom and Dad,” he later added.
Following the tragic loss of her husband three and a half years ago, Selecman has found love again. Selecman is dating the brother-in-law of one of her best friends. Selecman made the announcement, posting a series of photos with her new beau, Connor on Instagram.
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“I have believed, prayed, and claimed for 3 and a half years now that God would give me the chance to love someone with my whole heart again,” Selecman shared. “Other dear widow friends assured me that my heart could heal and expand to love two people equally, though differently. And I hoped, so desperately that would really be true.”
“This man is more of an answer to prayer (mine and countless others!) than [sic] I sometimes think he even realizes,” she continued. “I cannot believe how good our God is to redeem broken hearts the way he does. I am so grateful for that not-so-quick happy hour. I love you (Instagram-less) Connor and I can’t wait to see what this new chapter holds 💕.”
Jackson shares three daughters, Mattie, Alexandra, and Dani Grace with his wife and high school sweetheart, Denise.
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Jackson’s daughter Mattie also co-wrote “Racing In The Dark,” a song Jackson released in conjunction with the release of Mattie’s first book, Lemons On Friday (via Thomas Nelson/W Publishing Group).
“I’m really surprised how well she was able to handle all that. I know I couldn’t have done what she’s done,” Jackson said in a press release. “One day she came to me with this piece of paper and said, ‘I wrote this song…the lyrics,’ and asked me to put it to music. So, I wrote the melody for it, and it turned out to be a very sweet song.”
During an interview with TODAY’s Hoda & Jenna, Mattie opened up about how the song came about.
“That was such an accident on my part, I’m certainly not a musician, but the lyrics just came to me one day coming up on the two-year anniversary of Ben’s death and Dad, obviously with the talent he has. I said ‘you know, could you put a melody with this?’” Mattie told the TODAY show hosts. “Thinking all the while if this is awful, is he going to tell me? But he did, and he invited me into the whole production process, and it was just such a beautiful surprise. It’s such a gift for me.”
The singer’s daughter continued to share that recording the song felt like a healing gift for their “family as a whole.”
Jackson’s daughters made a cameo in the music video for his song, “Drive (For Daddy Gene)” when they were children.
He wrote a song called, “You’ll Always Be My Baby” for his three daughters’ weddings in 2021. The song appears on Jackson’s album, Where Have You Gone. Jackson’s song, “I Do” is another song he wrote for his daughter’s weddings and also appears on the album.
