Grandma: Entry 2

Continued from entry 1:

After that, at some point Grandma started writing, and speaking, and traveling around to do conferences. She wrote over 15 books, many of which were quite popular, with thousands of copies sold on a few of them. You can see a list of her books here at Amazon.com. You can also google her. Who else can say that they can Google their grandmother and get real results on Amazon?

Growing up, my grandparents had an in-home publishing company. I don't remember exatly when it ended...my dad knows all the details. But they called their company 2 Chronicles 7:14. That verse is my grandma's hallmark. She uses it for every login password once she started using a computer, unless it has to be short, in which case she uses Jesus is Lord.

Some of my earliest memories are the following: one time when I was young we went to a book conference/fair where grandma had a booth of her books. She had a speaking engagement there too. It was at Bob Jones University, the notoriously third strictest college in the nation. I specifically remember her telling me I should go there when I grew up. Thank God I didn't.

I also remember my grandparents reading scripture for many hours each day. When my brother and I would sleep over, first of all I didn't particularly look forward to it. Grandma was never very adept at the "grandmotherly" things. For example, some Christmases and Birthdays we would be given money that went directly into our stock accounts that she controlled. I remember the first time she did this. I didn't mind until I found out that there were no "second" backup gifts, or that I wouldn't be able to get to the money until I was 18. I was pretty upset after that. But then one Christmas she gave me the Love Comes Softly series by Jeanette Oak. I thought it would be boring and old fashioned like other books she recommended to me. But to my intense surprise and pleasure, it became one of my favorite and first romantic novels. The series plunged me deep and irreversibly into the world of romantic fiction, of which I have been an avid follower ever since. She informed me that all girls needed to experience good romance.

That is one of my favorite things about Grandma. She is profoundly intellectual, analytical, deliberate, opinionated, controlling and insensitive on many accounts. But she is a hopeless romantic. And that was the one area we were always able to connect on. When she wrote her first novel, it was based in part on the story of her grandmother, my great grandmother. I was fascinated and riveted by the tragic love story played out in my own ancestral history. My great great grandmother was an Opera singer. She had an incredible voice that awed audiences, or so my great grandmother said. But she was forced into a marriage to a horrible man who forbade her to sing for anyone but him. And her voice died in her throat, along with her spirit. Isn't that so tragic? That happened! That was my ancestor! And I loved hearing all the stories about it. Grandma and Papa even traveled to Scotland and Ireland to visit landmarks from our history, for Grandma's research for her novel. They also did a 2 year stint of missions work in New Zealand. They traveled to some awesome places. And I get to claim that Grandma asked me to read and “edit” her first manuscripts of her novel about my great great grandmother. I loved that. I was the first family member to read it.