Last Thursday, July 25, my daughter Beni and I drove up to the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford, British Columbia to spend the day with the good people up there. I was invited to be one of the presenters in their Books and Borscht series. It was a wonderful day. It's an easy trip up … Continue reading Books & Borscht
Early marriages
Book 3 is now available on Amazon
The third book of my family heritage trilogy, A Sense of Presiding Goodness, is now available on Amazon. There is a link at the bottom of this post that will take you to the Amazon site where you can order the book if you so desire. It also lets you see inside the book and … Continue reading Book 3 is now available on Amazon
Bk 3. 4: The Wedding
My father insisted that Ben and I get married the day I arrived in Tokyo. The wedding was to take place in the chapel at Yakota Air Force Base where Ben was stationed. Even though the base chaplain and his wife wrote to my parents extending an invitation for me to stay with them the … Continue reading Bk 3. 4: The Wedding
Bk 3. 3: Tokyo Wedding Backstory Part 2
Note: On September 7, 1955, I flew from Phoenix, Arizona to Tokyo Japan. I went there to marry a young airman I had met in the summer of 1954, just before his departure for the Far East. We were both very young. Ben was nineteen at the time of our marriage; I was seventeen.The following … Continue reading Bk 3. 3: Tokyo Wedding Backstory Part 2
Bk 3. 2: Tokyo Wedding Backstory, Part I
When I was sixteen, a junior in high school, my family moved from our home in Stockton, California to Phoenix, Arizona. We were going there because my father had answered a call by the California branch of the International Union of Gospel Missions to start a Rescue Mission in that city. After several trips to … Continue reading Bk 3. 2: Tokyo Wedding Backstory, Part I
Bk 3. 1: Japan 1955
On September 7, 1955, I flew from Phoenix, Arizona to Tokyo Japan. I went there to marry a young airman I had met in the summer of 1954, just before his departure for the Far East. We were both very young. Ben was nineteen at the time of our marriage; I was seventeen. Memories of … Continue reading Bk 3. 1: Japan 1955
Old Photos: 1930s
Child Bride, my second book, begins each chapter with an old photo, or in one case a painting. I wanted it to be an album of memories, stories and photos that together tell the story of my parents' marriage that focuses on the early years, the 1930s and 1940s. I grew up hearing stories of … Continue reading Old Photos: 1930s
Young Mother
Paul Buxman painting: "Winter Vineyard" Winter is the rainy season in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Some years the rain is sparse; other years it rains and rains and rains. And when it isn’t raining, and the sun tries to come out, the dreaded tule fog rises from the wet ground and turns everything a uniform, … Continue reading Young Mother
Early Marriage
Sixty-one years ago this week I stepped on a Pan American plane at Los Angeles Internation Airport headed for Tokyo, Japan. There I would marry the boy who would become the father of my two daughters. I was seventeen years old. My groom was nineteen. We had not seen each other in over a year, … Continue reading Early Marriage
Heritage 