Inspiration

I have two relatives from the past who have had a profound influence on my ideas of what women can do.

First, early 1900's: with Indians beating their drums in the distance, she slept in the Oklahoma dug out to claim the land...
My Great Aunt Lena, at a young age hurt her leg with a cut from crossing a river barefoot in Russia in the late 1800's. The leg developed blood poisoning and became "Locked"(later in life it would need to be amputated.) After immigrating to America with family, regardless of her handicap, she was the only one able to make the trip needed to Homestead land in Oklahoma. She decided that because her Father was too ill and her siblings too young, she would go. She left Kansas by train, then horse and buggy to claim the land. This young, single women lived in a dug out shelter on the land that our family still calls "The Farm". Journals record her listening to the sounds of Indian drums beating at night. For the required time, Lena sat on the land to claim it in behalf of the family. President Roosevelt signed the Homestead and her family later joined her and through 3 generations it has yielded relatives a living. My cousin Charles now owns and farms it.

Second, 1963: The mandate came to leave the country. Soon news of killings in a near Village came. With her co-workers, she fled Congo in fear for her life...
My Aunt Erna was a single Nurse living in Oklahoma and felt God's calling to become a missionary. She served in Congo delivering babies for 10 years. In 1963 Revolutionary War broke out and they had to flee the village for their life. Her journal tells of their near escape, trusting God, the miracle of not missing the river transport and the hurt of saying a hurried goodbye to the villagers whom she had learned to love.

Growing up with these stories I longed to be an adventurer. The results of MY adventures have yielded being lost in the Colorado Rockies, rescued from an Arkansas river, the subject of Search Planes in the Bahamas, learning to pack and jump my own parachute with the skydiving club at K-state, hopping a train in Kansas and hitchhiking in Texas. All very subdued compared to what I hope my future will bring.

And maybe, someday, I can inspire like Lena and Erna.