Broken Family

Broken Family shares the fun, good, and bad of growing up in a large family or even any size of family that does not stay working at togetherness every day. The author's message is from his heart-a personal experience with a wonderful family of lots of activities and full of life become Broken. It covers the fun, joys, adventures, and heartbreak of growing up. Our author grew up in a small town in Iowa. He wants to encourage his readers to stay tight with parents and family members, to not ever assume everything is fine and being taken care of and be fair to all, to never let a sibling of the family abuse a parent, and to discuss estate matters with parents and family as parents age. Our author wants to help from his experience, if possible, to let other families stay away from becoming Broken.



Don is the second born of a family with nine boys and three girls. Family has always been important to him. He always tried to please and help his mother with housework and his father with farmwork to the best of his ability. Don did not have to be told a second time to do some things. He spent two years with the army in New Jersey at the Nike base. After discharge from the army, he went to work for American Airlines for thirty-seven years. Retirement gave him many days of freedom. He golfed for a year, bought ten acres south of Winterset, Iowa, built three ponds, a covered bridge over his overfl ow, a small barn, a six-bedroom house, and planted a one-acre garden. After about eight years of enjoying his adventure of that achievement, he discovered a slow pitch ball. He began playing ball again,which he enjoyed so much in his youth. Remember, his family was of nine boys and three girls: a baseball team and cheerleaders. He still plays for three different teams: seventy-five-year-old and eighty-year-old travel teams. Every June, he meets the challenges the Senior Olympics have to offer in football distance (he has taken first place in his age each year), softball accuracy, etc. He has over a hundred medals from his years of competition. In the summer of 2018, he was inducted in the Senior Games Hall of Fame. Don has been blessed in his life and enjoys sharing the good and bad of his life so far, which he knows has made him what he has become today.