The most important event of my life occurred at an early age. It began with an invitation from my best friend, Angie, to go to church with her. In our Sunday school class, I learned of Jesus and how much He loved me. I eventually received the gift of His love and gave my life to Him. My subsequent childhood and adult years have held their share of loss, loneliness, hardships, and grief—experiences no one escapes in life—but there has always been hope because of His presence and promise. I can look back over my life and see many ways God was weaving my story together.
I grew up in Xenia, Ohio, with my parents and older brother. School was one of my favorite places to be. And I would regularly carry home a stack of books from the public library to feed my reading habit. It should be no surprise that when I attended Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, I majored in education. Also, though I had not planned on it, I picked up a minor in library science.
That minor secured me a teaching job in northern Kentucky at a school in need of an additional librarian. I didn’t even apply for the job; I just happened to be accompanying someone who was interviewing. Over the next 22 years, I held various teaching positions in the elementary grades. Then I switched to adult education and taught GED classes for 14 years.
Along the way I met my husband, who was teaching middle school in the same district. CW and I have been married over 30 years. We are both retired from teaching now and spend much of our time in various volunteer and ministry activities. He has also gotten me into some activities I had not foreseen.
After CW retired, he began hiking big time. He traveled the entire 1,400+ miles of the Buckeye Trail that circles through Ohio. When he began a second time around the trail, I tagged along so he would have a hiking partner. That journey stretched out four years, and we completed that project in October 2019.
After his first time around the BT, CW astonished himself by picking up a pen. Equally astonishing, I became his editor and continued on to learn the world of publishing in order to produce his two books.
These activities, along with many smaller-scale ones, occupy my life here in northern Kentucky where I look forward to the wonder of each new day with my best friend, Jesus, and my best earthly friend, CW.