Second in a family of six, daughter of a conservative Mennonite minister, I grew up in a small Ontario community north-east of Toronto. Because of church traditions, my world was a rather protected one. The love of books became my avenue of learning about the wider world and the different views and practices of the more extensive family of God. Although I devoured reading of every genre, fiction with good content and biographies and autobiographies of people like Jim and Betty Elliott and Catherine Marshall were impetus for growth in my own life, and for making my relationship with God a vital and central part of me.

 

After marriage to my first husband, Norman Smith, we joined a more contemporary Mennonite Church. It felt that finally we were able to stretch our spiritual wings. Especially for me, a woman, who from childhood had sensed I was born the wrong gender if I wanted to use the strengths with which I felt God had gifted me.

 

​A son and three daughters enriched my life. God gave me the privilege to help raise four of my best friends! They now have given me three dear in-laws and five grandchildren.

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It was our dream to take early retirement. Norman planned to take over the housework and let me realize the dream of writing full-time. However, in 1999, my husband of thirty-nine years was diagnosed with colon cancer and we had eight months to put the gift-wrapping on the treasure box of our marriage and

prepare to say good-bye for a while.

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After a period of grieving and readjustment, I began to do the writing anyway. Out of my writing another opportunity was born. I’ve had the privilege of speaking to varied groups of people.

 

For six years I was alone, then one night, I received a call from a man I had known since childhood. Eight months later, Paul Meyer and I were married. He gave me another son, three more daughters and thirteen more grandchildren. Even though Paul was diagnosed with prostate cancer two weeks after our marriage, we had ten wonderful years together before his death. Now I am alone again but still finding joy in writing and relating to many other people.