Days with Memories

Writing, especially in the past several years, has been a way for me to express myself and how I feel. It has been therapeutic and cathartic in many ways. I found that writing about myself and my feelings not only helped me, but others found comfort in my words.

This book is a collection of some of those stories. They are about some of my life experiences, about my feelings, my faith, and about some of the people in my life. When I was reviewing these stories, I started to realize that these words were a great descriptive of my life. Better stated: I think what you will read in these pages will give you a fairly good idea of who I am. They will do as good a job as having someone tell you who I was and the kind of person I became.

These stories have appeared in myriad of publications: Referee Magazine, "Action" Magazine, the "Community Treasure" book, church newsletters; some were written with no targeted publication and had only a handful of readers. The last section of the book, "Three Funerals, a Commencement Speech, and a 50-year High School Class Reunion," contains five stories that I am especially proud of. There are three eulogies, one each that I wrote and presented at my mom's funeral and for my wife's mom and dad... a commencement speech that I gave at the junior college I attended in Centerville, Iowa... and a "welcome" letter that I was asked to write for a book that was distributed at my 50-year high school class reunion.