All 12 of us still living (age 62 to 80) from my original family were never brought up to express the words “I love you.” Sadly, even though I believe we do love each other, some of us (even as adults) are still not able to say those three important words and even if we hear them said to us some of my siblings are not comfortable enough to say them back. Lately, in an effort to change that, I’ve been doing a deliberate test (when talking with any of my siblings on the phone) by saying, “I love you.”…

Continue reading

For those of you who bought and read my book, I thought you might find this interesting. I was looking through pages 43 and 44 of my book a few days ago and I just now noticed something. My father’s mother was killed in that motorcycle accident at age 46 and he was age 46 when he took the motorcycle down the road and let go of the handlebars and stood straight up on the seat with his arms out (with no helmet and no protective leathers). Was that just a coincidence? I think not. His mother died June 15….

Continue reading

My “Get Tough or Die” book has received 38 five-star reviews on Amazon, so most of the reviews are excellent. I feel disappointed, however, that a few readers gave my book only three stars and one reader gave my book only one star. Every reader is entitled to their own opinion, but I have to wonder why they kept turning the pages and finished reading my book if they did not think it was an interesting read. One said the reason he gave my book only a three-star rating is because the abuse described in my book was not as…

Continue reading

If you have not already done so, when you finish reading my book–Get Tough or Die– please post a review on Amazon. So far, I have 31 five-star reviews but I need more because that really helps with book sales and my ranking on Amazon. Some people do not know how to write and post a book review, so I will explain it. If you go to google and bring up the Amazon page, you can type the name of my book in the search bar. When my book comes up, click on it and you will see three boxes–one…

Continue reading

It’s been a while since I added a new post, but a recent message on Facebook inspired me to write about something I did not include in my book. I wrote one chapter explaining what we did to earn money, but I did not go into any detail about what we did to have fun. Yes, in spite of the abuse and hard work we had to do on the farm, we also managed to have fun, but the kind of fun we had back in the 1950s and 1960s was much different from what children do now for fun…

Continue reading

According to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death for people age 15 to 34. Why? According to the World Health Organization, more than 300 million people of all ages worldwide suffer from depression, which can lead to suicide. The good news is that depression is treatable, but the bad news is that fewer than half of those who suffer from depression receive treatment. In other words, one of the best ways we might be able to prevent suicide is to first recognize and treat those who suffer from depression, which…

Continue reading

When asked why I moved to Tacoma, Washington, when I was 21 and left Minnesota where I grew up, I usually respond by saying I did not like the cold weather. While that answer is true, there is more to this story than simply wanting to live in a warmer climate. Something happened that motivated me to come to that decision. I was living in St. Paul, Minnesota, where I rented a room from Mrs. Ella Duesterhoeft. She was a wonderful landlady–just like a grandmother to me, so I was happy and content living there for a few years. Ella’s…

Continue reading