Joy Neal Kidney's Blog, page 17

A Poignant Review of Leora’s Letters by Lauren Scott

Lauren Scott’s poignant review of Leora’s Letters

“As I began reading Leora’s Letters, the story of The Wilson Family by Joy Neal Kidney, it didn’t take me long to feel moved by the love, faith, and perseverance in this remarkable family. The tale begins with Leora and Clabe who were farmers in Perry, Iowa during WWII, but their story unfolded when one by one, their five sons enlisted, wanting to serve their country. During this period, the family stayed in touch by old fashioned letter writing initiated by Leora, and I felt honored to read the letters that were evidence of their solid family connection. But the intense silence was palpable during the times when Leora and Clabe waited for their sons to reply. I can only imagine the emotional turmoil.

“The letters also reminded me of my parents’ story that commenced during WWII. They were engaged in 1942, then my dad was sent overseas. Handwritten letters were the glue that kept them connected for three years before Dad was honorably discharged in 1945. They were married soon after he arrived home. Theirs was a love that was everlasting, and February 24, 2012 would have been their sixty-seventh anniversary, but mom passed away on February 2nd. However, if not for the letters floating back and forth, their story may not have been written. So, there is something exceptional to be noted about old fashioned letter writing, but unfortunately, this intimate gesture has faded with conveniences of technology.

“Leora’s Letters may be a personal diary of The Wilson’s, but it also serves as history, reminding us that those who sacrificed their lives in war should not be forgotten. I knew the premise before I started the book, but I wasn’t aware of the details. As I continued from one chapter to the next, I sensed a dreadful anticipation. As a parent, I can’t fathom how Leora and Clabe felt, not knowing the whereabouts or wellbeing of their sons. I became teary-eyed as the story progressed, and at one point, I considered putting the book down for good. The heartache was overwhelming. Though the sorrow never subsided, I’m glad that I made it to the end.

“Joy is the daughter of Doris Wilson Neal and the oldest granddaughter of Leora and Clabe’s. She is the keeper of her family’s history, so through intensive research, she beautifully crafted this book with the help of Robin Grunder. I commend Joy and Robin for such a well written and moving account. And I am still moved by Leora’s strength and courage to greet each new day for decades later despite the magnitude of loss she endured. I highly recommend this book because it profoundly touches on love, family, resilience, faith, loss, and the desire to move forward.”

Lauren Scott

Lauren Scott is a poet and writer of short stories, both fiction and reflections of her life. She enjoys small-town living in Northern California with her husband, Matthew, and their lab, Copper; they have two grown children. She has authored two collections of poetry: New Day, New Dreams (2013) and Finding a Balance (2015). In 2021, she released her memoir, More than Coffee, and her latest book is a poetry collection, Ever So Gently, that was released in July 2023.

Her poetry has been published on Spillwords Press, and she was voted author of the Month for May 2023. Lauren is a contributing author in the anthologies, Poetry Treasures 2: Relationships (2022) and This is How We Grow (2023). She has recently finished her first children’s book and is working with her illustrator, planning to publish in early 2024. Her writing inspiration comes from love of family, spending time in the great outdoors, and finding joy in the simple things. She hopes her readers will find a little nugget of delight, comfort, or understanding in her poetry and stories – some detail that resonates with them beyond her words.

Please check out Lauren’s website and her Amazon Author Page. Here is my post about Ever So Gently.

Father to the Fatherless, a Sculpture by Jake Griggs

What a beautiful sculpture and compelling words. 

Father to the Fatherless – by Jake Griggs

I created this sculpture 15 years ago during a challenging time in my life. I was broken, depressed, and lost in the direction of my life’s path. Growing up without a father left deep emotional wounds that impacted me greatly. However, realizing that God is “Father to the Fatherless” transformed my perspective and healed my heart.

Even though this sculpture may not be my best work, it serves as a powerful reminder of God’s kindness and love for his people. We all carry stories of brokenness, but it’s how we choose to respond that defines us. Our past does not have to dictate our future; it can either enslave us or empower us to become something beautiful.

Embracing the love of God allows us to move forward with hope and confidence in a destiny filled with abundant life. Remember, your broken past does not determine your worth or potential. Trust in God’s love and walk confidently towards the bright future He has in store for you.

Please take a look at his website: Griggs Sculpting: Sculpting with Purpose & Passion

Bosnian Pirijan

Bosnian Pirijan 

1/3 cup rice
8 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 medium chicken, cut into serving pieces (or 1 1/2 lbs. cut-up chicken)
3 tablespoons Vegeta(see below)
1/4 cup cooking oil
3 cups water, approximately

In a large baking pan, layer the uncooked rice, potato chunks, and chicken. Sprinkle with Vegeta, then the oil. Add water (or chicken broth) to nearly cover the potatoes. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees F. for 15 to 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and back about an hour longer. 

Note: A European market is likely to have Vegeta. It’s also for sale online.

This recipe is adapted from a succulent meal I enjoyed in Bosnia in 2001. A few years earlier, my husband and I became volunteer English as a Second Language teachers at our church. One young family, who’d come to Iowa as refugees of their war, eventually invited me to visit their homes in Bosnia with them, so I did. Both rural homes they’d grown up in had incurred damage during the war, one of them destroyed. Homes did have electricity but you couldn’t count on it, so houses still had wood-burning stoves as well. 

The pirijan I enjoyed in Bosnia, cooked in the oven of a wood-burning stove, was more scrumptious than what I made here at home. It may have been that old-fashioned stove. 

My dad would have been surprised to learn I’d been raking hay by hand with Asima’s family, just up the hill from their home. 2001, near Skokovi, BiH 

The Lawman: Broken People – from the case files of Sheriff Will Diaz (ret.), A story of Redemption

The Lawman: Broken People by William R. Ablan (aka Richard Muniz)

What a powerful story, with a rich community of compelling characters, set in southern Colorado.

Town marshal Pam Harmon is wounded during a law enforcement operation at a drug house. The chaos triggers this former Marine MP, a widow with a small son, into a crisis. She doesn’t want to wade through a major trauma from the past and is ready to give up. Pam is confronted by her friends, including Detective Will Diaz’s wife Jewell (who is a counselor) who help her begin the process of healing. Broken People is about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and the need to work through it.

It’s also about policework, bad choices, family dynamics, and second chances. I was drawn into the Diaz family and their community. At the end of the book is a list of PTSD resources.

Broken People is the third novel in the author’s The Lawman Series. This one may be read alone, but you’ll want to read the others as well. You’ll appreciate Detective Diaz’s delightful family unit, along with his thought processes as he handles difficult characters and situations as a follower of Christ. Someone should make a movie of this one.

Here is a recent blog post about how this book came about.

About the Author

Will Ablan, AKA Richard Muniz, is a native of the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado. Raised a cowboy, his sights were set on distant horizons. Light years away in fact. He studied Astronomy at Adams State University, and in his senior year, began to suspect he was taking a degree in something he couldn’t get a job in.

It was a suspicion that would prove correct. After graduating, and not finding a job, he began looking elsewhere. He had a gained some Law Enforcement experience working with the Campus Police force, and so began applying and test for local departments. He figured it would be a cold day in Hell before they hired him.

Events would prove he was totally mistaken in that, and he ended up working as a Law Enforcement officer for over twenty years. Somewhere in the middle of all this, events would dictate that he step out of his comfort zone, and he enlisted in the United States Army as a Military Policeman. His experience as a civilian police officer proved invaluable to him in the Army as he worked undercover narcotics, plain clothes investigations, and VIP security. During this he deployed to the Persian Gulf for the Gulf War.

After the Gulf War, he worked Emergency Management in the San Luis Valley.

Eventually he moved into the Information Technology field, and has worked in it for the past twenty years. He’s considered an expert in VMware, Security, and Auditing, and has written extensively on those subjects.

He and his wife currently reside in Greeley, Colorado.

Policework is where good and evil meet. – William Ablan/Richard Muniz

President Roosevelt’s Prayer on D-Day

From the Truman Library Institute

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered a prayer to the nation at 9:57PM ET. It would last 6 minutes long, and be heard by over 100 million Americans—and millions more in Europe. Written with help from his daughter and his daughter’s husband, it was the largest mass prayer in American (and world) history.

Here is a ten-minute story about FDR’s prayer.

My Birth is on Page 223

Turns out birthdays are actually good for your health — the more birthdays you have the longer you live. – Andrew Reynolds

First in a series of four baby pictures

I was born during World War II, two days before D-Day in Dexter, Iowa, to an Army pilot (Warren) who’d married an Iowa waitress (Doris). The hospital was just east of the Presbyterian Church where my folks were married a year earlier. The church bells rang the Sunday morning I was born.

Dad, an instructor in the Army Air Force, arrived in Iowa from Marfa Army Air Base, Texas, in time for my birth, but then had to get back to teach the next class of advanced cadets. They wrote precious letters to one another because my new mother and I stayed with her folks near Minburn until Dad could return to take us to Texas.

From the Redfield Review, June 8, 1944, Dexter section: Congratulations – Kenneth Neal (Dad’s dad), that energetic and enthusiastic Farm Bureau Director from Union township, stopped in at the office last Thursday looking vastly different than ever before. His chest protruding very visibly and his spirits were exceptionally good. It all summed up to one thing – Kenneth is a grandpa, and his little granddaughter is tops. Incidentally, the office force presented grandpa Kenneth with a walking cane and a mirror.

I am the oldest grandchild on the Neal side.

Doris wrote Warren on June 9, “It is just about time for Joy to come in. I sure do love her and if I had died, it would still be worth it. . . . I just look and look at her when she gets her tummy full and I can’t realize she’s really so cute and perfect and ours.”

By the fourth photo, I was gettin’ mighty tired of the whole thing.

In those days, mothers stayed in the hospital ten days with their newborns. She wrote again June 11: “A baby is crying now and I am wondering if it is our little bit of Joy. Hon, Kenneth got her the cutest little gold locket. Having a baby is so much better than Christmas.”

A picture of the baby locket is at the end of this blog post.

My first note from my Daddy is dated June 25, 1944, Marfa: “My Darling Little Bitty Hon, . . . Has anyone gotten you a dolly yet? If no one has, I’ll get you a little dolly. Sure will be glad when you and Mommy get down here with me. If Mommy won’t give you nickels to buy ice cream cones, you just come down and live with me and we’ll have ice cream cones galore.”

Only because of the war, hundreds of family letters were saved. At this point, Mom’s brother Dale Wilson was Missing in Action. He was the first person she wrote that she was expecting a baby boy in the spring. That small V-Mail letter was returned unopened, marked “Missing.” While transcribing the letters around 1990, that “baby boy” born June 4, 1944, was the first person to unseal that precious note.

My birth is also recorded on page 223 of Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss for an Iowa Family During World War II.

#aginggratefully #notgivingup

The Three Rs: Restoration, Reconciliation, Redemption

Fiction, nonfiction, even an unusual devotional. These books deal with gritty and real human dilemmas, and are written by humble and approachable authors.

The Lawman: Broken People by William R. Ablan (aka Richard Muniz)

This is his new one, just out June 6: What starts as a routine Law Enforcement Operation, goes tragically south when Pam Harmon is wounded. She is a town marshal, former MP in the Marines, a widow with a small son. The incident thrusts her into facing demons from her past, demons she never wanted to face. Now it’s up to her friends and Detective Will Diaz’s wife, Jewell (who is a counselor), to save her before it’s too late. Broken People is about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and the need to work through it.

Broken People is the third in the author’s The Lawman Series. You’ll want to read the other books because of Will Diaz, the Lawman himself, but also the other compelling characters, including one called Zorro.

—–

A Bright and Blinding Sun by Marcus Brotherton

What a powerful story, masterfully woven, about a too-young soldier who ended up in the Philippines nine months before WWII arrived. Joe spent five months fighting the Japanese on Bataan and Corregidor, 3 1/2 gruesome years as a POW. Bookending this important part of history is Joe’s relationship with a too-young prostitute, whom he manages to rescue, and how Joe eventually recognizes God’s work even during devastating months. A compelling redemption story.I’ve been a fan of several of Marcus Brotherton’s books for a long time. Another memorable one is Blaze of Light, about Green Beret Medic and Medal of Honor Recipient Gary Beikirch. Here is Marcus Brotherton’s Amazon Author Page.—–Cameron Lost by Craig Matthews Craig Matthews’ newest book, Charity’s Fire, won’t be out in time for Father’s Day (launch date is June 20), but if you haven’t read his Cameron Lost, I highly recommend it. Cameron does something unspeakable to his family, knowing it can never be forgiven–by God, by anyone. His journey through his misery takes him on a real one, hiking and hiding, taking the reader on a journey through Michigan’s rich Upper Peninsula vistas in while sharing in his losses and terrible choices and misery to eventual redemption.Please also have a look at this author’s other books.—–Into the Room by Steve Rogers

This is Steve’s first book, an award winner, with more on the way! Can a journey across the Holy Land redeem a reluctant pilgrim?

Ben Cahill’s life is an alcohol-saturated mess. After an insincere effort in a rehab facility, he is alienated from his family, out of work, and determined to continue his habit. To make matters worse, he finds himself on a tour of Israel, along with, as he calls them, a bunch of Holy Rollers.

As the trip progresses, Ben experiences the Holy Land’s major historical sites and is exposed to God’s word. He interacts with his fellow travelers, gradually learning about their faith and their lives. Along the way, Ben becomes embroiled in a spiritual war, reinforcing his guilt and, in turn, forcing him to recall his past actions and behaviors. He also begins a different journey, one that leads him to redemption and a place in God’s family.

Steve’s Amazon Author Page.—–

Jesus is All We Need by Jason Sautel

Jesus is All We Need is an honest devotional through the eyes of a former firefighter. Jason Sautel’s stories are a beacon of light for believers and seekers alike. With his own humble and relatable style, he shares his own missteps and foibles, but also what the Lord has done in his life. His dogs, Daisy Mae and Gronk, show up in one of these priceless devotions.

High school dropout Jason Sautel is an unlikely author, but his autobiography, The Rescuer: One Firefighter’s Story of Courage, Darkness, and the Relentless Love That Saved Him, is such a powerful one. Please have a look at both of his books.

 

 

You’d Never Recognize Grandma Leora’s Small White House

Leora Goff Wilson lived at 505 North 4th Street in Guthrie Center for nearly forty years. It was a small two-bedroom home with one bathroom. Her big dining room table, which originally belonged to her folks when they lived in the Victorian house during the 1920s, barely fit in the dining room, so it was hard to get everyone seated. 

Leora, 58, and her mother, Laura Goff, moved into the new house February 10, 1948. Laura, age 79, had been living in Omaha near several sons since the Great Depression. The widows made a home together in that little house for four fourteen years, until Laura died in late 1962 (my freshman year of college). Leora, by then 72 years old, had never lived alone before.

The house had a full basement, with very steep open stairs. The furnace and the washing machine were down there, along with an extra bed and the buffet that matched the big dining room table. Every autumn, Leora lugged potted plants (including a really nice rubber plant) down those steep steps to store until spring. She’d find pots for plants still in the ground so they could also overwinter in the basement. 

When the little house was sold in 1988, the new owners bought the even smaller house to the north and had it taken down. Using both lots, they remodeled Leora’s house, building the new part to the north. The front entrance is north of where the old one was. You’d never guess this handsome home started out as a tiny white frame house.

The “Leora books”–world and national events reach into the American Heartland

Through one Iowa family, the “Leora books” tell stories about world and national events reaching into the American Heartland–westward expansion, two world wars, pandemics, mental health issues, the Great Depression, and dealing with great personal losses. The stories of courageous Leora Goff Wilson are hopeful as well. 

Leora’s Early Years

The oldest of ten children, Leora Goff gathered the tenacity, optimism and hope to endure dozens of family moves, great losses, an influenza pandemic, brothers drafted for the Great War.

When she married Clabe Wilson, they became forged into parents who would shepherd their own family of seven children through two more eras of world and local history–the Great Depression and WWII.

Leora’s Dexter Stories

Leora Wilson hoped that one day she and husband Clabe could have a home of their own where their youngsters could thrive and all earn high school diplomas, which she had not been allowed as a girl.

But in the undertow of the Great Depression, those dreams were jeopardized by the struggle just to survive. The Wilsons were faced with a heartless landlord, nine children with whooping cough, a needle jammed in Leora’s hand, and relentless unemployment. Their two oldest sons joined the Navy in order to have jobs and enough to eat.

As the Wilsons slowly slid into poverty, Leora tried to keep her dreams alive while making a haven for her flock in one run-down house after another.

Leora’s Letters

Five sons served. Only two came home. One son was already in the Navy before Pearl Harbor was attacked. The four others worked with their father as tenant farmers near Minburn, Iowa, until–one by one, all five sons were serving their country.

Along with her regular chores of cooking and cleaning, gardening and taking care of chickens, Leora wrote hundreds of letters,  dispensing news and keeping up the morale of the whole family, which included two adult daughters.

Leora’s Letters is the compelling account of a woman whose most tender hopes were disrupted by great losses. Three of her sons lost their lives during the war, yet Leora lived out four more decades with hope and resilience.

What Leora Never Knew

What Leora Never Knew: A Granddaughter’s Quest for Answers is my journey of research into what happened to the three Wilson brothers, tenant farmers who became pilots and who lost their lives during World War II. 

“We must never forget these three brothers.” – Marcus Brotherton, New York Times bestselling author

“This reviewer, a World War II aviation historian, was very impressed with the author’s determined and exhaustive research.” – Steve Blake, Co-editor of Lightning Strikes! publication of the P-38 National Association.

About the Author

I’m the oldest granddaughter of Leora Wilson. As a child, I helped Grandma, along with my mother and her sister, take Memorial Day bouquets to the graves of three young uncles, not knowing that only one of them is buried here in Iowa–until decades later, after losing my courageous little grandma and reading the family’s WWII letters for the first time.In order to tell Grandma Leora’s stories, I published the first book at age 75. My husband, Guy (an Air Force Veteran of the Vietnam War and retired Air Traffic Controller) and I live in central Iowa. Our son and his wife live out-of-state with a small daughter named Kate. I’m aging gratefully, having lived with fibromyalgia for two dozen years, giving me plenty of home-bound days to write stories. —–Please visit my website. And my Amazon Author Page. Autographed copies are available in the Des Moines area. Amazon carries hardcovers, paperbacks, ebooks, and the first three are available as audiobooks.

Comet Halley and an Eclipse of the Moon, May 1910

Postcard to Miss Leora Goff, Exira, Iowa (c/o Jake Engle), May, 1910.

(I would like to go down Sat.) Audubon, Iowa. May 23, '10. 
Dear Sister: - Hello Leora! How you be? I am fine. Did you see the total eclipse of the moon last night? We did. Have you seen the comet yet? I have seen it 3 times and the rest of them 2. We saw it last night in the west. It had a long tail. Grand Mother & pap are going home tomorrow. Having "greens" for dinner. Was talking to M. & Ross Sat. Pa & Ma & the 4 little kids went to Sun. S. and then went to Leavens' Sun.
(On the right: Your loving Sister Georgia.
(On the left: Ans. soon Look under stamp

Now we know why the green one-cent stamp is missing.

Leora was attending Mrs. Connrardy’s sewing school. In her memoirs, she mentioned seeing Comet Halley, but it was fun to find her sister Georgia’s confirmation on an old postcard.

There are more Audubon County stories in Leora’s Early Years: Guthrie County Roots. Audubon is the neighboring county to the west of Guthrie County. The Goffs lived there only six years, but some of my favorite stories are from those days.