"ABOUT THE AUTHOR"

AUTHOR OF THE LEGACY STORIES ON THE BLOG

"Life is not a journey to the grave meant to arrive with your body tied up in a pretty package, but rather to come skidding in broadside at full speed and out of breath saying "Wow, What a ride". (Thanks son for providing this one).

This author has lived such a life. Now turning 65 this babe of the forties grew up in the segregated south so poor my white family rented from a black landlord. In the segregated south of the forties, that was poor.

The family was dysfunctional with problems ranging from domestic violence, divorce, and alcohol abuse. These problems led to some cases of sexual abuse. But the author has found humor, love, strong work ethic and the love of God made her a valuable person.

As a wife, mother of three, grandmother of eleven and lifelong champion of the underdog, my struggles led me into various career opportunities such as nursing; non-profit work to benefit the homeless, advocating for domestic violence and rape sexual assault victims, and reaching out to improve the wellness of others through massage therapy. I continue to travel a spiritual journey to serve through opportunities that present themselves.

I became the founder of The Godwin Project, a 100% volunteer project to help victims move thru the underground to escape abuse. I continue to administrate the program . This was done to honor my sister, a pioneer woman police officer for twenty eight years who died of breast cancer and experienced domestic violence in her lifetime.

In 1984 I received the Iowa DIANA Award for service through volunteerism and also placed in the top five in the International DIANA competition that year.

For the purposes of this book of memoirs, and in order not to identify certain family members or people who might prefer to remain unknown, I introduce to you my "shadow family".

Many of the legacy stories will not list people by name. I believe it will add to the enjoyment of the story not to always know where it is taking place and allow the reader to use their own memories and preconceptions of how people would look, what they would experience etc.And to those family members who don't want to be identified it gives them the enjoyment of the book without the personal exposure of their issues.

I hope you enjoy my story telling format. It is just me telling it like it is from my personal perspective in an introspective way. It is presented in the folksy colloquialisms of my home area and utilizing the cliche's of my era. I chose to use the vernacular most comfortable to me as a story teller. I am only recounting my life, not inventing it. That means there is a chance that sometimes the truth or "facts being stranger than fiction" may apply.

The truth is, everytime the family gets together we are always correcting each others' story versions. My grandson told me I should just write my version and if they wanted to dispute it, they could write their own. ( Of course this is the same Grandson, Justin, who decided I should call it "Grandma Lady's Slightly Exaggerated and Fractured Family Tales".)

While I strive for accuracy, obviously I was not present for some of the events that took place so I had to use intuition in some of the stories. The benefit of being the author is that I can produce future work for all my friends and family who want to "edit" or amend my body of written word. My legacy is that they will be engaged in the reading and discussing of it, thus live it vicariously together.