I thought about writing a book when I was in therapy for a broken leg. One of my friends said that I have had so many things happen to me that I should put it all in a book. Well, I am not a writer. I never liked writing anything. When I had to write my master's thesis, I really thought I would never get through it; I did and made an A. That was many years ago, and I haven't written much of anything since, except lesson plans.

I was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and we moved to Etowah, Tennessee, when I was just a baby. I was raised by wonderful Christian parents and had wonderful grandparents. We were a family of four including my older sister.

My sister, Judy, and I were very different. She was outgoing, and I was very shy. We were involved in several activities. We both were Brownies and Girl Scouts. We also took piano lessons. She was good at listening to music and playing it on the piano, but I had to have the music in front of me. Whenever Judy would get a new piece of music to learn, she would bring it home and let mama play it for her. She would sit down and play it without ever learning the notes. Mama finally caught on and quit playing her music so she would learn the notes. It didn't work. She took lessons for a while longer and then quit. I continued on through college.

We also had all those lovely childhood illnesses-measles, mumps, and chicken pox. There were no vaccines at that time. My poor mama and grandma usually had two or more weeks of one child and then the other sick with each of these diseases. I especially remember chicken pox. I stayed with my grandma and she believed in Calamine lotion for the itch. To this day, I cannot stand the smell of Calamine lotion. It was also Bible School time at church, and I couldn't go but Judy could. I was so disappointed. I also remember when we had the mumps. My dad was working in Morristown and would come home on the weekends. Several weekends he came home to the new disease of the week. Needless to say, we survived those diseases, and I am so glad there is now a vaccine for the little ones.

When I was in the Girl Scouts, we went on a picnic at Quinn Springs, across the road from the Hiwassee River. We always had a fun time and we had great leaders that took us camping and places to work on our badges. We were jumping around on some big rocks, and for some reason I fell or passed out. One of our leaders, a registered nurse, came over to check on me. I had no pulse. I guess she thought I was dead. I don't know what happened after that, but I came to, because I am still here. I did not remember the incident, but my mama told me about it later.

The following are several things that have happened to me through the years and how I have overcome these obstacles with a lot of family support and a lot of prayer