I am a Christian loving and serving my God and His Son Jesus who gave His life on the Cross so that I could have hope of eternal life in Heaven with both of Them.

My family consists of her husband, four girls, one son, 12 grand children, and 10 great grandchildren.

I have done a number of different things since moving to the Black Hills; among one year of being a teacher’s aide. Than she got a taste of greeting and meeting new people. Shirley worked 15 years as a front desk clerk at motels and eventually managed one four years. I am now a “people greeter” at Wal Mart. But her love is being the supervisor and a counselor for SD Tourism greeting travelers from all over the world and welcoming them into the state of South Dakota as well as directing them to all the wonderful attractions throughout the state.

My life began in Central South Dakota on a ranch/farm that was homesteaded by my mother’s parents coming from Iowa in 1900. My Grandpa came ahead of the family and found the land. Then the rest of the family came by train boxcar with all the family’s belongings. There was Grandma, two boys and my mother, Marie.

Grandma was pretty wise. She knew that they needed a house, a barn and grainery. The barn was necessary for the livestock; the house to live in; and a grainery for the grain that would be harvested from year to year. She made the decision that it would be the barn and grainery. They could live on one side of the grainery and grain could be stored on the other side. So it was. Mom told how they used old newspapers to line the walls to keep out some of the cold in the winter.

I am not sure when the artesian well was dug, but it surely was good water and cold in the summer.

It wasn’t until Mom was graduating from 8th grade that the house was built and they could move out of the grainery.  Again Grandma was pretty wise. A basement was put under the house for the future furnace. The house had a bathroom and water pipes installed, even though the water was not piped from the well to the house. Yes, I used the old outhouse and studied her school lessons by the light of kerosene lamps. (I still have the lamp that I studied by.)

Mom lived in this house all her life until she and her Dad moved closer to town very late in their lives.

My mother took her Teacher’s Certification Test and began teaching. Then she met Hank who had been a bachelor East of the homestead. They were drawn to each other by their love of horses (suppose that is why I have forever loved horses?)

Hank and Marie got their marriage license and were secretly married at his brother’s home. When they returned from their honeymoon Marie went back to her home and Hank returned to his tarpaper shack. Hank said that it was not any place for a lady to live. Soon the friends that were sharing Marie’s home figured out what they had “gone and done”.

Then I  came along about a year and a half later followed by two sisters, a brother and another sister. The children were all raised in that home. Daddy and Mom bought the place from Grandpa.

Those were hard years; Daddy raising and loving every farm animal imaginable and raising five kids. We as kids never knew how poor we were. We kids helped with all the chores, putting up hay, cleaning chickens, milking cows and helping Mom with her house work as well as baking and cooking. We just did what had to be done, never questioning anything. As children we used the old grainery when it was not full of grain for a play house. We were a happy family!

Mom never cared much for Daddy's donkeys, but she learned to respect them. Daddy was in the hospital and they did not know how they were going to make the payment that was due on the farm. They thought sure that they would lose it. One day a man from Nebraska came to the door. He asked if he could see Daddy. Marie told him that he was in the hospital, but it would be okay for him to go. Guess What! He bought three Jacks and that is what made the payment on the farm! God intervention is what I called this.

We kids all went to school in town three miles away. That was when our family finally got a car. My sisters and I all finished high school there. My brother quit school at 15 and began farming and ranching, with his true love in horses. Today he owns the ranch with his sons and grandsons coming up to take over. It is a century farm/ranch now.

It is only in the past three years that I have gotten into internet marketing. What I am learning and hopefully will be able to teach others is a continual process which is gratifying. I am learning that it is a step-by-step process and there is no “get rich quick” fix. Keeping positive and working with skilled mentors will lead her to the results she can achieve. With God’s blessings and by His Grace all things will come to be harvested.