Pat and Doug Martin, parents of eight (I’m #5) and grandparents of twenty-four were volunteers at the Great Lakes American Red Cross. As a Naval officer, my father volunteered on weekends with the American Red Cross as an emergency weekend worker. Upon retirement from the Navy, he accepted a full-time position with the Red Cross…
I’m the product of a large single income family of ten. My mother, as you can imagine, was thrifty out of necessity. She patched worn out blue jeans, made prom dresses, remade curtains to fit windows and used up every scrap of food in the fridge to feed her eight children. It’s no wonder that…
I’ve been feeling the need to express myself more fully than the little squares of Instagram allow. I know I’m late getting onboard the blogging train but here I am writing my very first blog post at age 65! Years ago my brother sent me a humorous and memorable birthday card. The outside of the card portrayed a family with many children crowded into a station wagon. Above the heads of…