This week we welcome Mary Connealy to Author Memories.
Mary Connealy writes romantic comedy with cowboys. She is a Carol Award winner, and a Rita and Christy finalist. Mary wrote 20 books over ten years before she got her first book published. She was a stay-at-home mom when she started but during those years her children grew up and she got a job. For the last 5 years, Mary has worked forty hours a week teaching GED.
The Sweetest Gift
by Mary Connealy
The family legend I'd like to tell is about my mom's parents, Grandma and Grandpa Frew.
Theirs was a classic marriage of convenience.
My grandma grew up in Nebraska, not that far from my grandpa but they never met. She was the only child of a judge. She attended college when very few women did. She traveled in Europe and studied there, then went to Columbia University in New York City, and The University of Washington in Washington State to earn a master's degree. She was a spinster who lived with her parents, worked as a librarian and was a wonderfully talented pianist.
Theirs was a classic marriage of convenience.
My grandma grew up in Nebraska, not that far from my grandpa but they never met. She was the only child of a judge. She attended college when very few women did. She traveled in Europe and studied there, then went to Columbia University in New York City, and The University of Washington in Washington State to earn a master's degree. She was a spinster who lived with her parents, worked as a librarian and was a wonderfully talented pianist.
My grandma before she married, petting a rabbit.
My grandfather, who dropped out of school after the eighth grade to farm, married her college roommate, another Nebraska girl, but a girl who lived very near him. The only connection between my grandma and grandpa was that woman. When my grandfather's first wife was laboring with her second child something happened and they knew both the baby and mother wouldn't survive. Grandpa's dying wife called him to her bedside and told him she wanted her old college roommate to raise her child. She was dying and she wanted him to promise her, he'd marry her friend.
Grandma and Grandpa on the boat
Grandpa promised and began writing to the woman who would be his next wife. She agreed to marry him. I've always imagined that grandma, so accomplished, so well educated, with a decent job and all that talent, might well have considered herself a failure. In those days, around 1925, to be a spinster was very likely a disgrace.
And my grandpa, a prosperous farmer, might have been a great success.
When he proposed she said yes. He got on a train in Nebraska, rode out to Washington State, they got married and traveled home together, man and wife.
To look at them it seems a huge mismatch. But by all accounts their marriage was a congenial one. They had four children, the first one born fourteen months after the wedding. So whatever difficulties they found in marrying under such strange circumstances, their marriage was real in all ways, after all she was pregnant within five months.
And my grandpa, a prosperous farmer, might have been a great success.
When he proposed she said yes. He got on a train in Nebraska, rode out to Washington State, they got married and traveled home together, man and wife.
To look at them it seems a huge mismatch. But by all accounts their marriage was a congenial one. They had four children, the first one born fourteen months after the wedding. So whatever difficulties they found in marrying under such strange circumstances, their marriage was real in all ways, after all she was pregnant within five months.
My mom is the one with her arms spread wide.
My mom is the youngest child of four from that marriage. (Photo: Grandma and her 4 kids.)
I am trying right now to write a story, fictionalized, but with the same circumstances as my grandparents. One thing I remember so clearly about my grandparents house…my grandpa died when I was about five years old and I don't remember him…so it was just grandma in that old country farm home….was the grand piano.
There was a grand piano in my grandma's house. I've asked my mom and her sisters and no one remembers a time when it wasn't there. No one remembers talk of when it was purchased. It was huge. It seemed to fill the entire room it was in and nothing else was in that room but the piano.
I like to think that huge, beautiful instrument in that small house was my grandfather giving my grandmother a gift of pure love.
I am trying right now to write a story, fictionalized, but with the same circumstances as my grandparents. One thing I remember so clearly about my grandparents house…my grandpa died when I was about five years old and I don't remember him…so it was just grandma in that old country farm home….was the grand piano.
There was a grand piano in my grandma's house. I've asked my mom and her sisters and no one remembers a time when it wasn't there. No one remembers talk of when it was purchased. It was huge. It seemed to fill the entire room it was in and nothing else was in that room but the piano.
I like to think that huge, beautiful instrument in that small house was my grandfather giving my grandmother a gift of pure love.
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Leave a comment by midnight, Oct 16th
to be entered to win one of 2 giveaways:
- a copy of Mary's Historical, Out of Control
or
- a copy of Mary's Contemporary Suspense, Ten Plagues
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Leave a comment by midnight, Oct 16th
to be entered to win one of 2 giveaways:
- a copy of Mary's Historical, Out of Control
or
- a copy of Mary's Contemporary Suspense, Ten Plagues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Out of Control, Bethany House, Aug 2011
Out of Control - Kincaid Brides Book 1
Rafe Kincaid controls everything in his life...
until he meets Julia.
Julia Gilliland has always been interested in the natural world around her. She particularly enjoys studying the fossils and formations in the magnificent cave near her father's house. The cave seems plenty safe--until the day a mysterious intruder steals the rope she uses to climb out.
Rafe Kincaid is a man used to being in control--of himself, his brothers, and his family's ranch. The last thing he expects is to find a woman trapped in the cavern on his land--or to be forced to kiss her!
Rafe is more intrigued by Julia than any woman he's ever known. But when their developing relationship threatens a reconciliation with his brothers, will Rafe have to choose between his family and this new love that could heal his troubled heart and secure his happiness?
Rafe Kincaid controls everything in his life...
until he meets Julia.
Julia Gilliland has always been interested in the natural world around her. She particularly enjoys studying the fossils and formations in the magnificent cave near her father's house. The cave seems plenty safe--until the day a mysterious intruder steals the rope she uses to climb out.
Rafe Kincaid is a man used to being in control--of himself, his brothers, and his family's ranch. The last thing he expects is to find a woman trapped in the cavern on his land--or to be forced to kiss her!
Rafe is more intrigued by Julia than any woman he's ever known. But when their developing relationship threatens a reconciliation with his brothers, will Rafe have to choose between his family and this new love that could heal his troubled heart and secure his happiness?
Find Mary online at:
Seekerville - http://www.seekerville.net/
Petticoats & Pistols - http://petticoatsandpistols.com/
Mary's Blog -http://mconnealy.blogspot.com/
Mary's Website - http://www.maryconnealy.com/
Mary Nealy's Website - http://marynealy.blogspot.com/
Seekerville - http://www.seekerville.net/
Petticoats & Pistols - http://petticoatsandpistols.com/
Mary's Blog -http://mconnealy.blogspot.com/
Mary's Website - http://www.maryconnealy.com/
Mary Nealy's Website - http://marynealy.blogspot.com/
