Everyone’s lives are a journey. You don’t get from one place to another without
acquiring some life experience. Each one of us has a story, and I am so grateful you took the
journey to learn about mine! It is my hope that reading mine will help you to see the big picture of
yours. I hope you see you are not alone, and that you never will be.
At this point in my journey, I am a mother of six⸺yes, six⸺adult children and I have a total
of thirteen precious grandchildren who you’ve already learned a little bit about. They are some of
my greatest treasures, as you’ve read in the pages of my book. In 2021, I sold my home of
twenty-five years and about 95% of my belongings and moved from Buffalo, New York to
Brunswick, Georgia. Three of my six children already lived in the South, and so it just made
sense.
My first year in Georgia I spent traveling for my job. I work for Nielsen Ratings, so where I
lived didn’t really matter since I was gone all the time anyway. I could see my friends and
children and grandchildren from the places they lived and the places I was sent. In December
2022 my position was abruptly dissolved, and I found myself stuck in one place with no friends
and no history with anything or anyone around me. I was so alone, and I felt like a dying
transplant with nothing to help my roots dig into the soil and nothing to help me to bloom. I was
so unbelievably lonely. My daughter only lived an hour from me, but because of our schedules
we dont see each other a lot. I knew I had to find something that would fill my soul again.
Eventually, I found an incredible place on Jekyll Island in Brunswick: Driftwood Beach. I began
going there to write. I put a notebook app on my phone, and when I got to the beach I’d speak
into it and then transfer it off the app once I got home. I spent hours there writing my first book,
The Journey of Josephine, which only took me three-and-a-half weeks to write simply because
the story had been burning in my heart for over twenty years, just waiting to be told. I found
solace in writing and spent countless days there at the edge of the water. The hours I spent there
became my healing time, and before too long my next book was taking its turn on the beach
with my microphone: The Treasures of my Heart. I enjoyed writing this book more than I can
say, because I was constantly being reminded that God was always near. I just had to look deep
within my soul for healing, and He brought it to me through these treasures.
Since then, I’ve taken baby steps in growing roots here in Georgia. I have started making
friends with other authors and ladies all over sixty who have been through their own set of
struggles. They’ve added me to their group, and we go out every Tuesday night for dinner. I have
ventured out into the community and grown to enjoy more than just the beach. I joined an author
reading group, where we meet once a month getting a chance to read something we wrote. I’ve joined
other groups and someone from one of them contacted me and asked if we could meet. We did
and I think I found another friend. I am also working on my third book which is still in the very
early stages: The God Who Sees. It’s a collaboration of stories about women from the Bible, for women. My goal
for this coming book is simply to remind women everywhere that God has an answer for every
situation you can imagine. I am beyond excited about it, but I can’t share all my secrets yet!
Keep an eye out for it in a year or two.
Again, thank you for being part of my journey, to women everywhere: please don't think
you are alone in yours. We all have our own narrative of the ups and downs of our human
existence, the pages of our lives stitched together with tears, and with laughter, sunshine and rain.
Some of them are locked away in the prison of shame, the key long since lost. Some are barely
under the surface, waiting for the right moment to come out, just like a seed waiting for the
sunshine to warm the soil before it sprouts. Whoever you are, whatever your tale holds, and
wherever you’re keeping it, just know that if we, as women, lock our arms together, we will see
that there truly is Healing Through Stories.
