Author
Lest you forget
One day, my fourth-grade teacher, Miss Masten, invited me to her house to edit a story I wrote for her class. My dad dropped me off on his way to choir practice. She gave me a snack, we worked on the story, and she encouraged me. I don’t remember the story, maybe it was How the Gnu got Its Head, but I remember her kindness and taking time for me, and I still have the story.
As a child, I devoured Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, reading them again and again. I said, “When I get to heaven, I’ll get to meet her.”
When Mike and I got married, my mom encouraged me to keep a journal. Over the years, I did so, never knowing the impact those journals would have in my life.
In the fall of 2021, I told my supervisor I needed to cut back to teaching one day a week for the following year. I couldn’t give a reason at that time but later, when asked, I said, “I think I am supposed to write.”
“About what?”
“I need to write family history stories.”
I had already begun writing tales of my family’s ancestors as I traced their line back to William Brewster, the spiritual leader of the Mayflower pilgrims. In that journey I discovered their courage, patience, endurance, faithfulness, and dependence on God. All of these virtues were stories I wanted to pass on to future generations.
My direction changed on February 21, 2022.
On that day, Russian president Vladimir Putin, announced his intentions towards Ukraine. While much of the world’s attention focused on Eastern Europe, ours turned elsewhere. That same afternoon, in an unrelated but interesting coincidence, our Ukrainian-born son Nicholas, married only eighteen months, fell from a tree when at work. He was eighty feet from the ground and landed face down. Uncertainty roiled around our family, and it was hard to make sense of what was going on.
I began to write the day Nicholas fell, not knowing what memories he would have due to his injuries and wanting to record it so that, one day, he might be able to read it and remember. In addition, journaling the experience helped me process the events. Once I wrote it down, I was better able to release the day’s emotion, instead of reliving it over and over in my mind.
In the 80-Foot Fall, I wrote of Nick’s accident and healing journey but also shared his adoption story and how God grew our family. Initially, the story was for family and friends who supported us but has since expanded to reflect on how the joys, sorrows and disappointments fit into the grander epic woven into the lives and events of others.
Now, close to the same age as Laura Ingalls Wilder when she first started writing her Little House series, in a similar style, I have begun writing the historic fiction that began percolating in my mind those many years ago.
Take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children. (Deut. 4:9)