Remember When: Women of Influence

Women Mentors in My Life

This being national women’s month started me thinking of the women who influenced my life. I grew up in a family of strong women of influence. Not just their own families but their communities. From my pioneer great-grandmother who worked alongside her muleskinner husband helping to build the railroad across the planes. To my persevering grandmother who endured type one diabetes in the days before modern medicine. My mother taught me to learn a new skill every year so I could support myself and my family if I needed to. And my aunt Hazel took me under her wing after the loss of my parents and helped me to cope with adult life and motherhood. I have written about many of these incredible women in earlier stories, except Aunt Hazel who I will be writing about in the near future. I have been very fortunate to have these women in my life. Their influence has molded me into what I am today. Without them, I would not have made it through the struggles in my life.

My Childhood Heros

There were others who molded my way of thinking. As a teen, I wanted to be a scientist and Madam Curie was my hero. I read everything I could find about her life. I studied science and as a sophomore in high school entered a contest to join the junior academy of science enthusiasts. I finished in the top 5 in the nation and was given a membership in the junior academy of science. I also devoured books by Osa Johnson about her adventurer husband Martin as they lived and traveled Africa in the early 1900s.

 It was a way for a farm girl from the Ozarks to broaden her horizons. That it was ok to dream of a different life for me. That with hard work and determination I could go after my dreams. Even though the hard years of my life, where loss and heartache seemed to be the norm. I could escape for a while in the depths of a book. To this day at the age of 75, I enjoy getting lost in books about women who fought for those they loved and for their countries.

Living Some of My Dreams

I have been able to live some of my dreams; working for the military in Europe during the Viet Nam years. While there I met a lovely lady in Munich Germany, named Gisela, who at 5 years of age was sent to a family in a neighboring country to escape the Nazis who were taking children and putting them in boarding schools under the SS rule. She told about being made to sleep in a shed where mice crawled over her at night and getting very little to eat. But how she kept dreaming of getting to be with her family again and was so happy when the war was over and she could go home.

 I have owned a couple of successful businesses, served several years as an alderman in the town where I lived. I am even now studying to be a more effective witness for my faith, wherever that might lead me. 

I admire those women who were and are standing up for the rights of women and families. Who live by the standards set down in the bible and who aren’t afraid to voice what they believe. We all have a God-given destiny and it is our duty to find out what that is and to strive to accomplish it. I for one refuse to go quietly into the night but to live every day of my life to the best of my ability helping others and being a woman of encouragement.

I challenge you to dream big, be the best you can be, no matter what your age, and live the life God designed for you. May God bless and keep you all the days of your life.

If there have been women that you admired and influenced your life I would love to hear about them. Send me a comment and your email and I will get back to you.