All About Me

I knew my great-grandmother, Margaret. Born in 1903, she lived 104 years before she passed away in 2007. Her grandparents immigrated to the United States for religious freedom in the mid-1800’s. Talking to her was like interacting with a time traveler. “She was diligent, hardworking, and persistent, and was never known to complain,” her life story says, “[She] enjoyed gardening, canning, cooking, and was especially talented with needlework.” Her daughter, my dear Grama, Lavae, gardened, canned, cooked, and also never complained. She loved to play card games and cheated without shame. Her laugh was magical and made any flustered moment feel alright again. My dear mother, Suzi, was my best friend and biggest support. Her garden and kitchen are secured in my memory as formative and sacred spaces. Her sense of humor stretched for miles and she always found a way to implement it, especially into the heart-wrenching sorrows of her life.

Why do I start this All About Me section talking about someone else? Because I am who I am because of these women. Like them, I have a passion for gardening, cooking, canning, preserving, family, teaching, and writing. Like them, I too try to find the humor in life, capture and cherish all of it, even the hard stuff, and work hard to the betterment of those around me. Anything of value that I add to this website I learned from them. I aspire to be like them someday.

This website is lovingly dedicated to all my many ancestors: those who walked across the country in hopes of religious freedom for me and my family, who washed and hung laundry by hand, who baked bread, hunted, plowed fields, harvested grains, bottled stews, dried herbs, spun cloth, patched trousers, knit stockings, split logs, and courageously did all the things needed to build strong and happy homes. We are so spoiled today, and I owe them everything.