Today, another Love Inspired author shares the story of her mother. Here’s Brenda:

“When I think of strong women, I think of a woman that I didn’t have in my life for long enough. My mom, Rosetta Kasiah, lost her struggle with breast cancer 27 years ago. I was fourteen. As a child I wanted her to fight harder, to not give up. Looking back at her life, I realize now that she fought harder than anyone. My mother not only fought cancer, but she was also a polio survivor. She grew up in the 1930s and 40s, in a family with nearly a dozen children. Life was not easy, not by any stretch of the imagination. But my mother survived. She overcame her disability.

As a matter of fact, growing up, I never realized she had one. She didn’t talk about it. She didn’t let it stop her. She was beautiful, caring, and always busy. She worked our farm, she worked in the school cafeteria and she made a career out of selling AVON. Avon was the place where she shined. She went door-to-door, taking me with her. She knew everyone, and everyone loved her. In the fourteen years that I had her in my life she taught me lessons that I didn’t realize she was teaching me. She taught me to fight for what I wanted, even if it was just an orphaned baby bird or a possum. Yes, a possum.

My room was a menagerie of orphaned animals and bird’s eggs. She was willing to go sledding with me, and to sit outside and watch my latest fantastic bike trick. She taught me to dream. My mother also encouraged my love of books. Each month that we got the form from Scholastic, I would pick out several books. Old Bones the Wonder Horse, Black Beauty, King of the Wind and many more. I still have several of them. One of the sweetest memories is of the two of us on the couch reading ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL out of Reader’s Digest. We loved those stories and we loved watching PBS together. The other thing my mom did for me: she sent me to church. She always felt self-conscious in dresses, so she wouldn’t go. But each Sunday she would wake me up and send me.

I didn’t know until later that her faith included time alone with God, and the blessing of ministries on our local TV stations. My mom was the one of the strongest women that I know, and I wish I could have known her better. Lacey Gould is the heroine in THE COWBOY NEXT DOOR, my May Love Inspired. Like my mother, Lacey had a difficult childhood, but she wanted better and she was willing to work hard to change her life.”

Thanks, Brenda–Lyn