She was the first child, first grandchild on both sides and first niece. She was born into a family that were so very close that she didn't distinguishes one from another, they were all her heroes. They say she talked proficiently from the time she was 17 months old. She didn't meet a stranger and was known to make up her mind to go somewhere and would go, the first time slipping away at 17 months and traveling more than a block. Her dad even built a fence with no gate to keep her from escaping to play with neighbor kids at 3 years old, that didn't slow her down, she climbed right over it. Oh was she ever a handful.
But her childhood was perfect in every way. She was a healthy child that spent most of her time outside and being a tomboy. Baby dolls and girlie toys was a waste of money, just let her outside and that was her playground. Her whole family participated in family dinners, camping trips and gardening together. Whatever was happening, they all participated. They were all there when her daddy taught her to water ski at just 5 years old. They taught her to stand on a barrel and saddle a horse at 8 years old and ride unattended. She doesn't even remember anyone ever asking what she wanted to be when she grew up, I don't think she even realized she had too. Who would want to with this perfect life. As she is much much older now, she realizes one thing that was lacking and is not sure if it was a big deal or not. She had so much fun but they were never an affectionate bunch, no one hugged nor said I love you. This made her a little weird about hugging as an adult.
I can remember this little girls weird quirks. She learned early that if she smarted off to an adult then she would be in trouble. Since she was the social butterfly, she was also teased alot and sometimes got upset. She learned really young to run away when in a situation, rather than let her mouth get her in trouble. She didn't run away away, she would go somewhere till she got over it. This taught her to always hold her feelings inside because being honest about her feelings would probably get her in bad trouble. Silly child!
As a teenager she begin to outgrow the tomboy to a certain degree and started dating. It was quite humorous to everyone around because she would date someone a week or two, they would bring her home from a date. Rather than tell them that she was just not that into them, she would jump out of the car, run inside and lock the door. She left many a young men standing there wondering WHAT IN THE WORLD is this girls problem. Here again, she learned to run instead of being honest with her opinions.
But eventually there was a boy and things got weird for the whole neighborhood. Every Saturday the conversation would be, do you think tonight is the night she slams the door and runs inside. Week 2 went by and that was a record, it went on for many weeks and people was amazed but still wondered. The boy was perfect in her eyes and she couldn't find one reason to slam the door and run. She married that boy and still hasn't found a reason to slam the door.
She went to work at a place and for the first year there, the owner of the company would walk in everyday and say Good Morning Terri. She never corrected him because she needed a job and didn't want to upset him. One morning someone heard him and said WHO ARE YOU TALKING TOO. Her name is not Terri, he scolded her then called her in his office and chewed on her quite a bit for not correcting him. He went on to tell her he saw potential in her, but she had to read a book titled "Pulling Your Own Strings" by Wayne Dyer and tell him about the book later. She used that book and become quite successful in her workplace.
Being a parent of two beautiful kids was the most amazing thing to her especially since she had never even thought about growing up and had never even played with baby dolls as a kid. Thanks to that extended family and how she had been brought up, she tried to do the same with them. She and her soul mate were blessed to have all that same family she grew up with to help them in raising fantastic kids.
Her life was sheltered in such positive ways, the same people, same Church, same neighbors and she didn't even know what the word Divorce was as a child. She was never exposed to alcohol, fighting or bad language as a child. In the adult world, she was in for several shocks on how others were raised and this made her appreciate her life even more.
When she turned 40 her world that she was so comfortable with started spinning and has continued to even till this day. Major health issues almost killed her, a year later her dad was diagnosed with cancer but it was treatable. The next year, her son almost died when he went undiagnosed in the hospital for several days until his appendix ruptured and the poisons filled his body. Soon after she had more health issues that ended up with hip surgery at only 42. During this time, her uncle who was like her other dad became terrible ill, while he was in a hospital in another state, her precious grandmother that helped raise her had a stroke that left her with dementia. A few days later the uncle passed away and her life seemed to go off the deep end. She was not accustomed to this much tragedy in such a short amount of time.
After all of this happened she truly put her feelings in a secret place. The one constant that kept her and the rest of the family going was their Church home. When that feel apart, she as well as others seemed to be wandering on a desert looking for living water. During this time she tried opening up on her feelings and it did no good so she put them back in the secret place again.
So many things have changed in this world in her lifetime. Divorce that she never heard of as a child is now the norm. Instead of confronting people with issues, people now talk about others behind their backs. People's word is no good like it used to be, they make promises that mean nothing. They ask for forgiveness and turn around and continue to hurt each other. People she thought were friends have disappointed her in not being what she considered friends. When times get tough, they scatter. She has became a woman so afraid to get close to others, either they will deceive her or they wear a mask of pretension of who they truly are.
But all in all, she has had a wonderful life and owes all of the good things to her Lord Jesus Christ, and her family for giving her such a great beginning. As for now, she will continue to put those feelings away as much as possible because she just don't want to deal with them. She will hope that she and others will learn that affection and good words are medicine to our ears and she will love with her whole heart and soul.
