Chapter One - The Beginning

I have wrung more joy out of this life than I deserve. I wish I could say that it was because I had a grand plan and executed it well, but I'm not that organized. Everything I have and everything I've done is because it was dropped into my lap by an unseen, yet unbelievably kind, power.


According to my mother, it was a sunny, warm day the day I was born, 50 years ago. Her due date was 3 days prior, so it seemed like a good day for me to be born. I was supposed to be born on Halloween, and if I was, my name was to be Wendy. Lucky for me I decided that being Wendy the Witch was too much of a lifelong stigma, so I stayed snug in Mom's womb for another few days.

The doctor that delivered me said that I was the most beautiful baby he had ever seen. Several months later he went to rehab for drug addition. But I was a cute child, with a broad smile, and blonde hair that I kept until I was in Kindergarten.

My folks lived in Antigo, Wisconsin, where Dad had a hardware store. We didn't stay long after I was born - Dad yearned to go back to North Dakota, where he was raised, and when the opportunity arose to buy the Coast to Coast hardware store in Casselton, he jumped at the chance. Mom wasn't so sure - she had spent her life in Wisconsin surrounded by family, rolling hills, trees, and green. Her idea of North Dakota was that it was flat, windy, cold, and unforgiving. She wasn't far off.