I entered the late-depression world in 1934 at the brand-new Berger Hospital in Circleville, Ohio, a small farming community south of Columbus. A few months earlier, my family had moved into a big brick farmhouse built in 1869. My father’s Depression Era job was gone and he intended to farm with horses and plow, just as he had done as a teenager with his own father.

Waiting for the new baby were my older brother, two older sisters and my maternal grandmother. Both of my parents, Walter and Ruth Downing, were trained teachers, but as it turned out my mother was a stay-at-home mom, managing a huge garden, canning and doing laundry the 1930’s and 1940’s way.  My Dad farmed, taught school and eventually sold insurance.

My brother was thirteen years my senior, so a baby sister and high school football were a challenge. He went off to Hanover College and was eventually drafted, spending three years in China as a member of the Flying Tige. My sisters were soon off to Ohio State, so I was growing up basically “an only child.”

I attended Westfall Elementary School, down the road from our home where we had two grades to a room. When I was entering 7^th grade, my family sold the farm and moved to Circleville, again to a pre-199 home. It was then possible for me to walk to the city schools and avoid long bus rides every day. And it was rumored that the teachers were better!

Living in town also made it possible for our family to walk to the Presbyterian Church which before had required a half hour car ride. Our pastor and his wife, Don and Gwen Mitchell, were eager to have an active Junior and Senior High School youth group – Westminster Fellowship.  Our church was a member of the Presbytery of Columbus and after the war other congregations were organizing youth groups. Several times a year we had youth rallies with groups from other churches. The young people organized themselves, as the official adult Presbyteries did – Moderator, Vice Moderator, Stated Clerk, etc. The rallies included fun time, but also always had a speaker or special educational program.

I met my husband Bob our first week at Ohio University at a Smoky Mountain Party at the Westminster Foundation. We got married four years later. We were married 62 years until his death in 2018.

I followed Bob’s job commitments in interesting administrative jobs of my own. First, I spent 15 years at the Butler University College of Pharmacy in Indianapolis. Then 10 years at Delta Community College, Bay City, Michigan and finally 10 years at Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Ohio. Gardening, sewing and crafting have always been special, relaxing times for me.

In 1959 and 1961, we welcomed two wonderful daughters into our home – Joan in Chicago and Susan in Kentland. Joan and her husband, David McCarthy, are retired from Hastings College, Hasting, Nebraska. David is now serving as pastor of the International Protestant Church in Brussels, Belgium. Both David and Joan are ordained Presbyterian Pastors. Susan has her own health care consulting business here in Estes Park. Her husband, Mike Arnold, just recently retired from consulting with the U.S. Department of Education. And we have five granddaughters, all of whom will have completed their bachelor’s degrees by June 2024. Bob and I were/are supremely proud of our family’s accomplishments and look forward to their contributions to the world and the nurturing of family members yet unborn.

Family vacations, when Joan and Susan were growing up, almost always included camping in northern Michigan. Bob had been a Boy Scout and loved camping. He first joined a troop sponsored by the Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Clyde, Ohio. He then convinced me camping would be a great family vacation, beginning in a green tent and progressing to a small, tent trailer. One summer, Joan, our older daughter, was preparing for a college violin audition.  We were camping along a little lake in upper Michigan where many of the local residents were Chippewa Indians. One afternoon she was practicing out along the lake, and two Indians walking nearby stopped to chat and to listen to her practicing.

After Bob’s retirement, we followed Susan and her family to Colorado – Nebraska was on the way to Colorado! In 2004, we moved to Parker. A search for a Presbyterian Church followed, finally settling on Montview. Stimulating preaching and outstanding music were the deciding factors. Because of Montview’s distance from Parker, our participation in the congregation was limited. However, Bob was on the Lectureship Committee and later served as volunteer Chaplain at Montview Manor. I knitted many prayer shawls to support Montview’s Shawl Ministry.

The Presbyterian Church has been the foundation of our family’s life. I am very grateful. In addition, I’m grateful for Reinhold Niebuhr’s words,

“God grand me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
The Courage to change the things I can;
And the Wisdom to know the difference.”

– Written by Anne LaFollette