Today would have been my mother, Susie Latty Day’s, birthday and if she were here, I’d bake her favorite dessert–lemon pie. The lilac bush at her house in Tahlequah is blooming now and that’s fitting because she loved lilacs. In fact, when she was sixteen, her dear Aunt Ettie, Tettle, she called […]

An Historic Day at a Farmhouse in Virginia
Dignity in defeat and graciousness in victory. I’ve often wished, if I could go back in time, that I might have been present that day, April 9, 1865, in the parlor of Wilmer McLean of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. I would like to have seen General Robert E. Lee, tall and erect, dressed in […]

When Grandma Bohannon Came to Etta Bend
The Heritage of Etta Bend and Remembering Etta Bend are books of the stories of my mother’s childhood on a thriving Oklahoma farm in the last century. My cousin Carolyn Cochran Karinen drew the cover pictures for both books. Then, as now, everyone was glad to see signs of spring and know that the long […]

Frosty Roofs, Warm Hearths
The sun shines on white, frosty roofs this morning. No matter the color of the shingles, they all look the same–cold! But, under the frigid rooftops, inside the house, I hope there is warmth and love and comfort. Just in case we have forgotten, this is Presidents’ Day, but it isn’t the birthday of […]
Just Who Do You Think You Are?
Do you ever feel like a tiny Who in Dr. Seuss’ beloved book, Horton Hears a Who? Don’t let anyone ever make you think that you’re unimportant. You have infinite worth and value. So, hold your head up, put on a determined grin and move forward with life. Whether you are on the west or […]


