Perry, Iowa, showcases an Art on the Prairie Festival each November, with events all over town–artwork demonstrations and sales, poetry readings, music, and more.
I was invited to give a presentation about the Leora books in during Art on the Prairie 2023 at the Perry Library, especially poignant because the Wilson family lived on an acreage a mile south of Perry at the end of World War II, the first place they’d ever owned. And it was Veterans Day.
The Wilson family burial plot is in nearby Violet Hill Cemetery, where we family ladies traveled with Grandma Leora to leave flowers for her husband and all five sons every Memorial Day for decades. Only two sons are buried there, but I didn’t realize that until after Grandma’s death in 1987. I wrote those Leora books to make sure the family story is never forgotten.
It was a poignant hour’s drive home that day two years ago, as Favorite Guy and I discussed that it just might have been my last book talk, at least out of town. My fibromyalgia had worsened and so had his Parkinson’s symptoms, both of which include exhaustion. That turned out to be true, but I’m so thankful I was able to enjoy the last one in a favorite town, which has so many memories over several decades.
I’m especially thankful for you on-line friends who’ve faithfully followed my writing journey, here at home, some of you living in other countries. Thank God for the internet!
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. – Psalm 100:5
Thanks to you who have uploaded free ebooks of Meadowlark Songs: A Motherline Legacy and Leora’s Early Years: Guthrie County Roots. They are still free through tomorrow, Saturday, November 15.