The story of Vicki's life continues as she grows up on beautiful Bainbridge Island located in the Puget Sound of Washington State. As a young child, she suffered poor health. After undergoing a tonsillectomy, she emerges as a healthy, young girl ready to meet life's challenges and opportunities. Experience with her the wonders of John Glenn's space flight, the Seattle World's Fair, and the election of John F. Kennedy. You will be taken back to a time when entire neighborhoods worked and played together, such as in the annual cider squeeze. Neighbors looked out for one another and their children! The old saying, "it takes a village to raise a child," is brought to life in this collection of memoirs. Experience life's challenges through the eyes of a growing child as she faces moving, changing schools, making new friends, and being part of a growing family. Feel the emotional trauma as she copes with losing friends and saying good-bye to her brother. Look forward with Vicki as she faces the future with anticipation and a determination to succeed.
About the Author: Victoria Farnsworth was born in California, but grew up on a beautiful island in the Pacific Northwest. She spent three years in California as a teenager, but returned to the Pacific Northwest to graduate from high school. It was during her senior year that she met her husband, and after his return from Viet Nam, they married. They have been together over 45 years and raised a family of three daughters. Victoria is now enjoying her retirement surrounded by the natural beauty of the mountains in central Arizona. Victoria's first work was published in the Reader's Digest in August of 1983. She spent the next several years writing poems for family, friends, and church, but never endeavoring to publish her work. She worked as a secretary for the Department of the Navy, spent the 15 years teaching swimming and related aquatic classes for various school and park districts in Washington, Oregon, and California. As is every mother, she was busy driving girls to lessons, sports, and church activities. She had to deal with teenage boys, lovesick girls, and being married to a millworker turned truck driver. When the girls all left home for school or marriage, rather than feel like an empty nester, she spent time in serious prayer and contemplation. She then embarked on a new career path and became Clara the Clown. Seven years were spent clowning around up and down the West Coast. As always, she was busy with church service and managed to be a Relief Society President during this time. Her new career ended when a car accident forced her to retire. After becoming a Master Gardener she started a new business doing landscape design. Unfortunately, another car accident forced her to once again give up something she loved. Writing continued to be a hobby. Victoria wrote the quarterly news articles for her garden club. In June of 2011, Victoria had an article published in the Northwest Landscape Professional magazine about butterfly gardening. She kept an online journal of her life in Mexico and continues with a website devoted to her new life and home in Payson, Arizona. Victoria has received numerous requests that she write a book. Now, in her retirement, the time has come to share her life experiences. One book could not begin to hold 60 plus years of unforgettable events; hence, this work will take many volumes to tell the story of an ordinary woman living an extraordinary life.