written in 1988
I was born seventy-one years ago on a beautiful farm in northern Vermont, the oldest of three girls. Only my father and a neighbor woman were in attendance as the doctor was busy elsewhere delivering another baby. I've been told I came into the world yelling lustily in protest against it all and I am still protesting although not quite so belligerently. As age creeps up on me I have mellowed somewhat, but I still hate prejudice, jealousy, discrimination. I attended a small rural school (all eight grades in the same room) high school, and two years at a teacher's college. I loved school and cried graduation night. I taught school for two years then I married. At the age when life allegedly begins (forty) I went back to college, majoring in English, hoping to get my degree. I was unable to complete more than one year for financial reasons. I loved my English courses, (especially Creative Writing); hated Physics, Chemistry and Math. I have always wanted to write. Even in the lower grades I tried to write stories, In High School I wrote reams of poetry which my teachers liked but publishers did not. Between the ages of forty and fifty I began having pain in my hip, very severe at times. I thought I was wheelchair bound until my doctor told me about hip-replacement surgery. As soon as it could be arranged I had the operation. Before it was healed I fell, necessitating another hip replacement. During that surgery my femur was shattered. After more surgery and many weeks in the hospital I was sent to an orthopaedic surgeon in Boston, a miracle worker who takes hopeless cases no other surgeon will touch. With the help of God and the prayers of many friends he did indeed perform a miracle. Today I can walk without crutches. After ten years of nearly constant pain, hobbling on crutches I am free. My husband died six months ago and I find I have time to pursue some of the things I have always wanted to do. I live alone with eight cats and three birds. My home is in the country where I can enjoy clean air, peace and quiet. I love the solitude and I am never lonely because I know I am never really alone. The Lord has seen me through many years of pain and disability, and through His grace I am now free to do many things I have been unable to do for many years. I love gardening, good music, historical novels and TV sitcoms. I have no patience with self-pitying, self-righteous people. I am deeply grateful for the good life my parents gave me on the farm and I would like to write about country living sixty years ago. My nieces and nephews are fascinated by my tales of "long ago." The Lord has done so much for me that I want to do something for Him. I hope in some way my writing may help others to know Him better. I want to write the story of my miraculous recovery in the hope that it might give someone else the courage to keep trying, even against seemingly impossible odds.
Woodsmoke and Cardamom 