Tag Archives: life

At the edge of the yard on my dad’s property grew a large bed of vibrant orange tiger lilies. Every year as early summer came, they popped up and opened toward the sky. They were not just another patch of old-fashioned flowers; they had been planted 60 years before by ...

Prudence—not a common word in today’s culture, yet a word all can live by and see good days. Prudence is caution, the ability to foresee and avoid an evil thing.  It was a word so valued in early American life that is became a popular girl’s name during the 17th ...

Most of us  learn things from our father as little children that we draw upon later in life, often coming to the realization that we learned patience, or fairness, or empathy from the man we looked up to the most. When I had a challenging day caring for my three ...

Ann was beautiful, with long, auburn hair and fair skin. She was kind-hearted, a soft whisper of a pioneer woman, like her name. She was 16 in 1829 when she traveled from Kentucky with her parents, James and Mary Ann Rutledge, and her nine siblings, to the open prairie of ...

Beginnings often hold the promise of good things. When my grandparents were married in 1927, it was a time of new hope for both of them.  My grandfather had finally regained his health after suffering from Tuberculosis brought on by weakened lungs after he contracted influenza during the 1918 pandemic. ...