I remember thin covers and always feeling cold. I remember an empty stomach that ached to be full. I remember leaving the table, and still feeling hungry. How hard that must have been for my mother. I look at pictures from those times, and she was so thin. So was I....
Fear. Despair. White knuckle praying. A raging sea, in a leaky boat. Lightning bouncing off the mast. Wondering if this time, I really am going to die. Often, in desperation, I whisper the sailor’s prayer,“Lord, the sea is so big, and my ship is so small. Have...
He was a drinker. A dog kicker. A wife beater. The meanest man I’d ever known. His wife was a Christian. A kind and gentle woman. A forgiving woman. I never understood why she never left him. He ridiculed her faith every chance he got. They lived in one of the houses...
She was not the popular girl in high school. She was in advanced studies, in a school system that idolized their honors program. My daughters thought the world of her, and with good reason. Aimee was a patriot. No apologies nor excuses. She was an officer in her high...
It was an innocent mistake. But sometimes innocence makes terrible mistakes. I was 17 years old and it was my first year on the farm.I saw a mother quail pulling a string behind her, parting the thick, green grass. I was charmed by her adorable headdress -- a little...
It was November, 1976. I had just moved back to Jacksonville Florida, with my three young daughters after many years away. We were struggling, and I wondered what kind of a Thanksgiving I was going to be able to make for my children.We were living in a small trailer,...
"She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies, And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes...." --Lord ByronShe is tall and slim…spiritual, funny, irreverent, and serious. With her red-gold hair and her sea-green...