Family, Grief, Secrets and Forgiveness!

Laura Barrow is a former teacher and a lover of books. She received her bachelor’s degree in music education from Centenary College in northwest Louisiana, where she grew up. She now resides in northeast Texas, just outside Dallas, with her husband, three daughters, and a houseful of pets.

Three estranged sisters reconnect in their Louisiana hometown to face an unresolved past in a heartfelt novel about family, grief, secrets, and forgiveness.

Savannah was four years old when her twin sister, Georgia, went missing from their small Louisiana town, fracturing their family. Twenty-eight years later, Savannah convinces her estranged older sisters, Rayanne and Sue Ellen, to honor the pact they made as children and retrieve the time capsule they buried in their old backyard. But coming home means confronting old ghosts…and their stubborn grandmother, Meemaw.

Sifting through the artifacts, they come across a photograph taken on the day Georgia disappeared and spot a familiar woman lingering in the background. While Sue Ellen and Rayanne want to move on with their lives, Savannah is determined to find the woman—and perhaps a clue to the past.

When old tensions, rivalries, and memories resurface, the sisters must reconsider what they thought they knew about that fateful day, about each other, and about themselves. On their search to uncover what happened to Georgia, each of them will discover what Meemaw has known all along: family is everything.

What Has Happened To Your Writing During the Pandemic?

Susan Reichert

I would think every person on the planet has heard about the pandemic.

It has conjured up fear in millions of people, cost the lives and lively hood of many.

Yet, as with in times past, we have to remember we will get throuigh this.

Maybe things will be somewhat different than before, but we will see the light at the
end of the tunnel, as they say.

I pray during these times, if your children still live at home, that you have reacquainted yourself with your spouse and children. It is such a blessing to have family.

Sometimes we go at such a fast pace, we don't slow down to enjoy what we have.

When this is over, I hope all of us remember, how special our families and friends are and make concerted efforts to spend quality time with them.

It can be a lonely life without family or friends. While we have them let us show them how much we love them and how much they mean to us.

If your children are grown, like mine; call them, text them, zoom them, but make efforts to talk several times during the week. Don't lose touch. When all is said and done, they matter the most.

During this time, have you found yourself putting off your writing? Or have you spent more time creating and developing a new book?

There are many things we can write about, especially right now. Who knows, you just might pen the next best-selling book of all time.

May God bless each of you and your families.

Retired Editor-in-Chief of Southern Writers Magazine. Facilitator of Collierville Christian Writers Group, President of Southern Writers Author's Services, Gallery of Stars, and Suite T. Author of Storms in Life and soon to be released book, God's Prayer Power.

                                                

Use Each Day~Make It Count

Susan Reichert    @SouthrnWritrMag

Editor-in-Chief Southern Writers

With everyone having to stay in their homes, our attitudes are the things most of us are having to monitor.

As I told my children (who are grown) we can decide each day to use our day and make it count or we can complain and gripe. Staying in a good frame of mind is important––physically, mentally, emotionally and spirtually, for all of us.

I pray God, through His grace, will bring all of us through this better than we were when it started.

For writers we have the opportunity while this is going on to write a new story, or finish one we
have been working on.

There are many things as a writer we can do during the days we are home. I am hoping I will be able to finish some projects I have put off for a long time. It gives me a sense of accomplishment each time I get one completed.

And I get to spend more time with my family which I am grateful for thanks to Zoom. Since we don't live close we use this to visit. It is very comforting.

So many things we take for granite––like being able to run up to the grocery store and grab a four pack of toilet paper, paper towels, milk and bread. Now we only go once a week, and seeing the shelves bare is mind boggling.

During this time let us pray for one another, keep good thoughts, and make each day count in our own way.

God Bless!

The Gift of Family Heritage

by Renee Rowell 

On December 14, 2001, my in-laws celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary. Like most young couples just starting out, they didn't have much, so their wedding was very simple. He wore a simple suit instead of a tuxedo. She wore a simple skirt and jacket instead of a wedding dress. There was no reception to speak of; just well wishes of close family and friends as they began their new life together.

The year before, my husband and I, along with his three siblings and their spouses, began talking about and planning for the celebration. We decided to give them the reception they never had. To be held at their church in the fellowship hall, I was given the task of decorating the room. There were the traditional holiday trimmings, all reflective of a golden anniversary; gold wreaths on all the windows, Christmas greenery on the tables, gold glitter candles on the guest book table. 

But, there was one display that really put into perspective what the celebration was really all about. 

My mother-in-law had amassed quite a collection of family photos over the years, and I really wanted to come up with a unique way to display them. As part of the decorating scheme, I had purchased a set of two white, spiral LED Christmas trees. At first, I wasn’t exactly sure just what to do with them…then it hit me.

I placed the trees on a table in the back of the room and asked my oldest son and my niece to begin attaching all of the family photos to them using red and green ribbon looped onto ornament hangers.  After the photos were hung, we turned the tree lights on. How beautiful they were! Standing back and looking at the photos in the glow of the tree lights, one could begin to see a story unfold; a legacy of life and love that has been passed from generation to generation.

In moments like these, especially during the holidays, it's a little bit easier to be thankful for our family, even amidst some of the drama and hectic last minute preparations. But...what if we went a little deeper? What if we didn't stop at being thankful? What if we actually considered the legacy we are building? What if we understood that our words and actions toward our family are building blocks in the foundation of our legacy and a springboard for them as they live out their own legacy?

As we approach the new year, let's consider the words of Jesus, "As I have loved you, so you love another."  If you have a heritage of love, you have the opportunity to regift that love to the next generation. If you don’t, why not establish a new family tradition through the written and spoken word that becomes a living diary of love?

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Renee is a 2011 Proverbs 31 Ministries She Speaks graduate and has been happily married to her husband, David, for 25 years.  They have two sons; their oldest is currently serving overseas in the Air Force, and their youngest graduated high school earlier this year and is working towards college. Her husband is Director of Worship and Media at their church, and in addition to serving alongside him and blogging, she is currently writing her first book. You can connect with her on Twitter or her blog.