Hi there!
It is a joy to meet you and tell you a little about myself. There will be many more details about each facet in my blogs but below are a few topics that might be discussed. A dear friend once told me as a stay-at-home mom, “Your mind is too active to stay at home.”
My wonderful and patient husband and I have been married 33 years and I was blessed to be a stay-at-home mom with our two children until my youngest started kindergarten. Not long after, I started working in the kindergarten where he was. This inspired me to renew my teaching certificate and work toward my masters degree.
With a renewed certificate, I accepted an offer of employment at Chambers Academy. I moved my two children to Chambers Academy to be where I taught. I guess I suffered from separation anxiety.
October 31, 2009 the plant where my husband worked closed and he was without a job.
November 29, 2009 my father passed away from a gliobastoma multiforme brain tumor.
The next year I lost my job at Chambers Academy and later on started working in social services at Arbor Springs Health and Rehab. I stayed until my husband was offered employment two hours and fifteen minutes from where we lived in Dadeville, Alabama to Glencoe, Alabama.
After a job here and there, Pat Hill, the Director at George Wallace Senior Center gave me a chance to work at the best job I have ever had. It was there that my writing officially started. I wanted to practice writing in preparation for my first book. Pat suggested I call Glencoe’s local newspaper, The Messenger and ask if I could write for them. The Editor answered the phone when I called and he asked me to e-mail a sample writing. I sent the e-mail, he published it and has been publishing every since. I have been writing for The Messenger for several years thanks to Pat and Chris McCarthy, the Editor at The Messenger. There was a short break in writing in all the insanity of moving in with my mother.
My mother suffered from dementia resulting from a car accident when I was about three years old. Her methods of improvising and adapting to cover up her weaknesses were all I knew growing up. She is one of the reasons I work as hard as I do. She fought to be normal when she was more than any normal I knew. She could still function normally and did so for about eight years after my father passed away.
November 17, 2017 something significant happened and my mother could not drive or live alone. I felt led to quit my job and my writing to help her.
My brothers and I took turns staying with our mother for the full year of 2018.
My mother is now in assisted living but we siblings still take turns getting her out and to go with her to church on weekends. Pat and Chris gave me another chance by giving me my job back at George Wallace Senior Center and The Messenger. I praise God for them.
Our two children have since graduated from college, married, and each have two children who call me “Nana.”
Somewhere in midst of all of this, I wrote my first book, She Made a Difference, Anyway, which was a tribute to my mother as she fought to be normal.
My goal is to glorify God because He is the reason I am still here. I am honored that He chose me in every facet of my life. I am not a strong person but God gives me the strength I need. He has blessed my life with so much love in family, friends and more.
In my writing, there might be a hint of a weird sense of humor. Please excuse it. It is one of the ways I cope.
In all of this, I hope you find a connection and enjoy the Alabama Lily Experience.
Alabama Lily 