FORBIDDEN – the movie

Edna Jeffrey Biography

  • Author of the novel 'Till I'm with You Again';
  • Hometown: Larkspur, CA.

Edna Jeffrey was born and raised in San Francisco.  At the age of five, she began helping out at the front counter of the famous Finnila's Finnish Baths bathhouse, owned by her parents.  

She contributed to the business successes of her parents throughout her adolescence, and she later became a co-owner of the bathhouse as well as the ''Noe & Market Center'', which today stands in place of the old bathhouse on San Francisco's Market Street.

Before the break of World War II, Edna Jeffrey was trained as an actress at the Pasadena Playhouse, and she worked as a model in New York, a career she left behind when she chose to be a wife and a mother.  

She has been a single mother, an entrepreneur, and an independent real estate broker for over forty years, and she now lives in a quiet neighborhood in Larkspur, in Marin County, California.

  • Childhood home: 2284 Market Street, San Francisco, CA - entrance from Noe Street.

Till I'm with You Again

Edna Jeffrey's novel, 'Till I'm with You Again', reads like a blend of romance and international intrigue and suspense - and insightful memoir. But, how much of this story is true?  

When Edna was visited one morning by the spirit of a man she had known only briefly - more than half a century before -, she was tempted to dismiss the occurrence as a dream. But it wasn't a dream; she was awake and fully aware!

This visitor was very real. Furthermore, he returned again and again, bringing her good cheer, always assuring her that he had never forgotten her, and always assuring her they would stay together eternally after she would join him on the "other side".

Edna decided she must relate this remarkable story, to let others know that love is eternal, lasting through the years of one's earthly life, but even beyond.

But how could she tell such a story?  She decided to entertain readers with a tale of what might have happened had she spent more time with Ali, the young Middle Eastern statesman who dazzled her.

She imagined a musical movie, with thrills and adventure, laughter and tears. The story grew into a Romeo-and-Juliet type theme of love, challenged by barriers of politics and religion. 

'Till I'm with You Again' is a highly entertaining work of writing, with elements of both comedy and drama. The story starts in 1940 in New York, featuring a spirited young career girl and a dashing exotic stranger, hansom rides in the moonlight through Central Park, and glamorous dancing at the Rainbow Room, atop Rockefeller Center.

The second half of the novel takes place seven years later in San Francisco, where our heroine has become a singing star. When the lovers reconnect, it is at their peril, because by then the Cold War is building up and East and West are caught in a deadly struggle over influence and power in the Middle East. The high-stakes adventure is packed with action and suspense, danger, honor, and death.

Much of Part One of the novel, set in New York in 1940, is true. Edna really did meet a handsome young Middle Eastern man and spend an exciting evening with him. Part Two is fiction - but that isn't to say that the story doesn't contain a great deal of truth.

For if there is one message both Edna and Ali would have us know, it's that the artificial barriers of nationalism and religion are meaningless compared with the strong, positive bonds of love. And love is forever! Part Three of the novel is true.