Author Penny Richards & Grandma Lang
My guest today is veteran author Penny Richards. She, Lenora Worth and I wrote a novella collection about a decade ago, Blessed Bouquets. Now she’s writing for Love Inspired’s Historical line. SHE’S OFFERING A BOOK TO ONE COMMENTER. SEE QUESTION. Here’s Penny:
“I appreciate Lyn asking me to be her guest. I actually come from a long line of strong women, including both of my grandmothers who had very different roles. I loved them both dearly but today I’d like to talk about Grandma Long, my mom’s mother.
She was part Sioux,
and brought much of her heritage with her when she married my grandfather, who was twenty years older than she and had teenage children. The first petroleum that was found in Fayette County Illinois was found on her dad’s property, and the William Henry Lilly field is still pumping. He bought all his kids a farm, and grandma did a man’s work while my grandpa worked for the highway department or the county as road commissioner.
Doing a Man’s Work
I remember her wearing men’s clothing and shoes as she tackled doing everything, from planting a garden and canning hundreds of jars of stuff for the winter, milking the cows and seeing to planting and harvesting the fields. Somehow she found time to have amazing flower gardens and even propagated her own new colors of iris. She didn’t have much education and her writing was pretty crude, but she loved to read and because of that, she never stopped learning. Besides her garden and orchard, she knew what wild things were good to eat, like dandelion, wild onion, dock and cattail roots. She was always pointing out things to us kids when we were with her.
Her way to “get away”
was to go fishing in the creek or to walk the plowed fields looking for arrowheads and other Indian artifacts. When she died, she had bushel baskets full. She didn’t have in indoor bathroom until I was grown. I never heard her complain. She was a woman who lived close to the earth, did what was needed to provide for her family and took her joy in small pleasures.
To Purchase, click cover.
Abby Gentry in WOLF CREEK WEDDING
has many of the same traits. She knows what is important and does whatever is necessary to provide for her family, even giving up her last links to her mother. Like Grandma Long, Abby takes great joy in reading, learning and teaching. She also knows how to make something pretty and memorable out of something as simple as pine boughs wild berries and a cup of hot cocoa. She knows that fun times are often impromptu and unexpected. Abby knows the importance of tradition and family and is determined to create both with her new husband, Caleb.
www.pennyrichardswrites.com
FB: Penny Richards, Author
Thanks for sharing Grandma Lang’s story. I wish more young people had known people like her. Many need a good dose of reality.
QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU THINK GRANDMA LANG OR WOMEN LIKE HER WOULD SAY TO YOUNG WOMEN TODAY? LEAVE A COMMENT TO ENTER DRAWING FOR PENNY’S BOOK.–Lyn
