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A Girl Raised in Kansas
I was the oldest in my family. By the time I was three and a half, Mother and Daddy had two more little girls. Mother sewed a lot of our clothes, and our Grandma T. knitted capes for us. We have the sweetest picture of the three of us girls in our new dresses and new capes. My sisters and I spent hours playing with paper dolls. We cut out “families” and furniture and clothes from catalogs, and cut little tabs on the clothes so we could change our paper doll’s outfits. Just a few years ago, a boy cousin …
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Such a Lady
The Lord giveth. The Lord taketh. Blessed be the Lord. I don’t understand the taketh. I intellectually know, but my heart doesn’t. My heart wants Mildred here on Earth with me, holding my hand as needed. The giving? Mildred gave us the gift of love. I had known Mildred for more than a quarter of a century. I knew her, loved her, learned from her and shared with her. Such a giving from the Lord. Memories of Mildred will comfort me this year; such as learning, ’bloom where you are planted’. In Oklahoma City, she worked weeks building a large …
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An Ordinarily Wonderful Life
I first remember when I was five,(1943) our family moved from Kansas to Colorado. It was the post-depression era, and Dad couldn’t find work. Offered a partnership with his brother, we traveled to my Uncle’s ranch (five children and two adults in one old car) located near Vernon, a dinky little community about 30 miles from Wray, out in the sand-hills. We lived in a neglected old farmhouse. I remember cleaning oil lamps and seeing rattlers in the yard, and the windmill pumping water into a stone house to keep milk & meat cool. My brothers and I walked, or …
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My Bone Marrow Cells…
(Visiting my sister Patty in the hospital on 1-5-16, she told me this short story. This was day six after her bone marrow transplant. Written using her actual words.) “They said my bone marrow cells came from France. I laughed. Well, I had never considered they’d come from a different country. I thought they’d be from the United States. And, considering they were not FDA approved, I had to sign my life away. The reason the cells came from Europe is they have been saving baby’s umbilical cords for a long time, so their banks are full. I think they are …
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The Label
Several years ago I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and central nervous system with each patient challenged in different ways. Basically MS attacks our body from within. MS affects my mobility so at the age of 57 I am on a walker and I have to use a wheelchair for most public events now. When the diagnosis came it seemed everyone else was more devastated than I was. Because of a “perfect storm” of medical issues, I was having some problems before the diagnosis came in: I had been on a walker …
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Leukemia???
(Visiting my sister Patty in the hospital on 1-5-16, she told me this story. In her actual words.) “When I heard the word leukemia…unbelief, shock, an empty feeling. Like, this is it, (laugh) this is all she wrote. And then there was panic to get to the hospital – go home and pack. The hospital was calling and setting up a room. We went to Denver and they had to bring me in a wheelchair. Straight to the eleventh floor. We went straight to ‘Go’ – don’t stop at admissions. It was October 1st, 2015, and it was an easy process. …
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Laughing is good for the spirit
This past week my cup runneth over with vanity. That is not a good thing. I looked it up, and vanity or pride is one of the deadly sins. It is not a virtue. My vanity this week revolved around my looking good for a professional picture I needed for my book cover. I began calling local photographers for my “mug shot”. A kind voice answered the phone, and Sandi said she didn’t have a studio but if I couldn’t find anyone else, to call her back. She gave me two references. I called both. One was booked, and the …
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Christmas Memories
Christmas is not a time for rules and judging and competition. It is a time for self, family, and friends. Feelings surrounding Christmas are the most valuable. Feelings evoked from the songs, movies, colors, lights, bells, cards, eggnog, hugs, and the aroma of sweets can trigger an inside smile or a visible skip in my step. It makes me feel good all over. Christmas brings to mind memories. The time my sister drove 300 miles and couldn’t make the last 30 miles to my home because of a blizzard. The transparent plastic paper my mother carefully pressed on the triangular …
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The ROOSTER Bully
My first understanding of how bullying feels came from a rooster my eight-year-old daughter caught at the county fair. Since she picked the one with the $5.00 bill around his leg she also “won” the rooster. The rooster liked everyone but me. I became a prisoner in my home. When I went outside the rooster would strut up to me; circle me, and attack; fly at my face with his feet. I couldn’t wash windows or refinish furniture in the building because the rooster would show up out of nowhere and start his routine. When I went for my early …
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Pearl Harbor Baby
Born at the time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, I was raised on a farm with a younger sister by our widowed mother who had a limited education, I vowed to get an education beyond high school to provide for myself, thus I became a teacher. I never really gave thought to returning to rural life but that is exactly what I did with teaching several years in a couple of rural communities with a year in a city school between those two rural experiences. In my marriage I was blessed to be able to have support to continue …
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Dr. J’s Mini Life Story
My parents wanted a boy. I was disappointment number four, with number five still to come. I tried to be a boy for my dad, but I was truly a girl with curls and ruffles and giggles. My parents argued a lot, and to this day I avoid conflict. It is one of my least healthy traits. Wanting people to tell their stories is rooted in not always having the safety to verbalize what I feel or think. I value friends, especially when we enjoy stimulating conversations. Women have always been my anchor. Raised in a house of sisters, and …
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What I Left Behind
What I Left Behind I remember a line for a popular song—“…you got to pick up on one and leave the other behind.” I don’t remember the context of the song, but that line has been echoing in my mind for some time now as I have struggle d with choices about work, my life’s work., my mission in this life. I wanted to be an artist. No, that isn’t quite right. I knew I was an artist, but I could never make myself do the things an artist needs to do to build a career. The art world today …