In the beginning ...

My mom was born in the northeast corner of Indiana in 1925, about a mile from the Ohio and Michigan borders. Her mother was Norwegian and father was German. Her little sister, Anita, and she played around the lakes, listened to their Norwegian grandmother read them the Bible and watched their mother play the piano.

During one period in her life, the family lived in Chicago. To this day I don't typically turn around when I'm in a crowd. I walk straight ahead. That's what she taught me to do when we lived in Charlotte. She had been in the Windy City during the time of Al Capone. Just keep walking ....

She studied voice, dance and speech at Michigan State University. That's where she met my dad, Elmer. They married on St. Patrick's Day in 1948. He was from Alma, Michigan. The war was over ...