Donna is the Mom/Grandma of this bunch. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. She has been married to her husband, Jeff, for 36 years. She and Jeff met at Southwestern Oklahoma State University while pursuing a degree in business administration. They married in July of 1980, and soon had two beautiful daughters, Becky born in 1981 and Emily born in 1983. After working in the family grocery/cafe business for several years, Donna returned to SWOSU to obtain a degree in Elementary Education, which was something she had felt that she wanted to do since she was a child. Teaching positions were scarce in the area at that time, so she spent a few years tutoring and substitute teaching before being hired as a para-professional to work with a handicapped girl in kindergarten in the local school system. Just as Becky and her high school sweetie, Gary were graduating high school, Mom goes back to kindergarten. After a couple of years, the girl with whom she had been working moved to another community, and the school superintendent asked Mom–soon to be Grandma– if she would be interested in working in the library, with the understanding that if she enjoyed it and got the Master’s degree required for the job, she would be ready to step into the shoes of the current librarian when she retired. Isn’t it odd how you can spend your life doing all the things you think you are supposed to do, and never realize the one thing you were born to do? The library was just the thing, and one Master’s degree and sixteen years later she is still working in the library ….with the original librarian who appears to be planning to outlast us all. Donna considers the school kids “her kids”, and her work with them as a ministry.
Grandson, Alex, surprised us all by being born in January, 2002. Mom and Dad weren’t planning a family until after Becky finished college, but God had other ideas. Alex and his Grandma have been best buddies from the beginning, and are very much alike in many ways. Granddaughter, Audrey, was born in February of 2007, just a couple of weeks after Alex turned five. At first, he was disappointed that it wasn’t a brother, but then wanted to kiss his baby sister on the head, and all was okay after that…..more or less. They are brother and sister after all. A few months after Audrey was born, Donna’s mother, who had been battling breast cancer for several years, passed away, leaving a huge hole in the family. Shortly after that, her husband, Jeff, was diagnosed with vascular dementia, though looking back, it was obvious that he had had symptoms of the disease for several years before being diagnosed. As is typical with some dementia patients, Jeff refused to acknowledge that he had a problem which made it very difficult to get him the testing and treatment he needed. When it became clear that it was no longer safe to leave him home alone during the day while the rest of the family worked, the decision was made to place Jeff in a nursing facility for more professional care. This was in June of 2015. Donna will tell you that this period of her life was by far the most difficult, and the decision to place Jeff in a nursing home was the most difficult thing she has ever done. Baby Addison brought a ray of sunshine to an otherwise impossible situation with her appearance on April Fool’s Day, 2015. With a boy and a girl, Becky and Gary had thought their family was complete, but, once again, God thought otherwise. And what a blessing little Addison has been to us all. Just goes to show you that God knows what He is doing, and that sunshine comes with the rain.
In her spare time, Donna likes to read, write, study the Bible, and cook for her family. She learned to cook by standing on tip-toe watching her Grandmother cook in the old farmhouse kitchen, and now her grandchildren run in and out of her kitchen while she cooks for them. The circle of life continues, and having her children and grandchildren nearby is the joy of her life.
Donna’s Favorites–
I was asked to talk about some of my favorites. There are so many wonderful blessings in this world, it is hard to choose what my favorites might be, but I will try.
Favorite Dinner
While I enjoy cooking, it is a treat to eat a good home-cooked meal that I didn’t have to cook, but I think I would have to say that my very favorite meal is one that I might get at a restaurant on my birthday or some other special occasion. I dearly love a juicy, grilled rib-eye steak, medium, with baked potato with butter only, and Caesar salad. The best place I know of to get such a meal is at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Oklahoma City. The distance, and the cost of the meal, make it something I don’t have very often, but that is probably just as well.
Favorite Dessert
I do have a bit of a sweet tooth, and enjoy a lot of different kinds of dessert, but for purely indulgent decadence it would have to be cheesecake, hands down. Doesn’t really matter what kind of cheesecake, plain, strawberry, chocolate, whatever, you just can’t beat that rich creamy goodness that coats your mouth and slowly melts down your throat. Mm-mm-mm!
Favorite Drink
If you are thinking that I’m going to come up with some kind of cocktail for this one, you’d be wrong. I don’t drink alcohol at all. In fact, I mostly drink water. I do like juice with breakfast, and on a hot summer day when only a cold drink over crushed ice will do, I occasionally drink a soda. My soda of choice is Mountain Dew. Or, occasionally a glass of Kool-Ade with the kids. My favorite is fruit punch.
Favorite Color
The world is full of an endless array of colors, an infinite variety of hues. Most are beautiful, as you would expect anything that God created to be, so I don’t have a favorite color so much as a favorite group of colors. I am quite partial to fall colors, the rich hues of browns, rusts, oranges, forest and olive greens, golds, and teals. I never really understood until not long ago, how much I am affected by color, and how soothing it is to be around the colors that you love, how much better you feel about yourself when you dress in colors you feel look nice on you.
Favorite Book
How in the world do you expect a librarian to choose only one favorite book? That’s like asking a mother which is her favorite child. Still, this is actually a fairly easy one for me. Because it is the holy Word of God, and the standard by which I try to model my entire life, I have to say that the Bible is my most favorite book. You can read it over and over and over, and still never plumb the depths of what can be learned from it. You can read the same favorite passages again and again, and they will speak to you something different for every season of your life.
But, if you want to know what my favorite fiction book is, I will have to tell you that it is a series of books which tell one story, The Harry Potter series. I think that it is arguably the greatest body of work in all of English Literature. I know that some of you will be shocked that someone who is a Christian reads and loves the Harry Potter books, but there is so much good to be reaped from reading them, that…..oh, you shouldn’t have gotten me started on this,……if you disagree, we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
Favorite Scripture
Once again, there are so many, it’s impossible to choose, but one of my favorites is I John 3:1–
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
It never ceases to amaze me that the holy God and Creator of the universe loves me and wants me to be His child.
Another passage that I have grown to love during the most trying times of my life is Ephesians 6:10-18–
“10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
While I was blind to it most of my life, I have now come to realize that we are embroiled in an epic spiritual warfare. Satan attacks us from all sides, and we must use the weapons of Bible study, prayer, and support of fellow Christians to withstand his assaults.
A third passage that comes to mind when I think of favorite Bible verses is Galatians 5:22-23–
” But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
This passage tells us of the Christian characteristics that will be displayed in our lives if we allow the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and guide us. It is a standard to which we may aspire.
Favorite Quote
I’m sure there are more inspirational quotes out there that I have heard, but the two that come to mind right now, have to do with books and reading, which I spend a lot of my time dealing with.
“A man who won’t read has no advantage over the man who can’t read.”
~~Mark Twain
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read.”
~~Groucho Marx
So, there you have it. I am introverted, studious, nerdy, and a little nutty. And now you know something about me.
This is a picture of Emily and me at my Grandma’s 100th birthday party.