Inspirational Archives - Page 31 of 45 - Sonia Marsh

“My Gutsy Story” by Marla Cerise

June 11, 2012 by Sonia Marsh

Fight, Pray, Love, Laugh, and Cry (Not Always In That Order!

My second husband passed away when I was 38. My two youngest boys aged 4 and 6 were the only ones with him the night he died in his sleep of cardiac arrest. I wanted to die then, but my 5 children were my strength and I resolved to make sure I would be there for them in their time of grief. I put my mourning on the back burner and made it my quest for them to mature into strong, capable young adults.

Four years later we suffered another tragedy when my precious stepdaughter Rene (who was 18 and lived with us), was taken from us in a vehicular accident along with the driver, a close friend, just 9 days after we buried my father. I prayed for guidance to continue on with my four remaining children, especially my 19 year old daughter Josette, whom was very close to her sister.

Not long after, Josette came to me and told me Rene came to her in a dream with her long shiny dark hair pulled back in a ponytail wearing a glistening long, white dress. Renee told her it was beautiful where she was and she was very happy!

Josette missed her sister so much! I tried everything including doctors, antidepressants, and therapy but she was inconsolable. I travelled to Chicago three months later to help my mother bury my Nona (who died on November 17^th) and soon after coming home, just before Christmas we lost our beloved Josette. She put a pistol to her head in our back yard and again my two youngest boys, George and Geno found her body and called me at work wailing uncontrollably!

It was all I could do to cross over the yellow tape surrounding my house with the help of my loved ones, and walk through my front door that felt like the door to hell! I held out my arms to my boys and we cried in a big heap standing in front of a Christmas tree yet to be decorated. Josette’s note begged forgiveness and asked us to pray that she find Rene!

Within days of her death I dreamed I was in a large crowded room and Josette told me she could not find Rene. I saw Rene in the crowd behind her and told Josette to turn around and look. When she saw Rene she smiled and hugged me telling me “Thanks Mom” and ran to her sister as I woke up. I knew then that they were together as they had always been!

After burying our beloved Josette we reluctantly decorated the tree. In past years I would buy the most special ornament for my husband and wrap it for the children to open on Christmas Eve to hang on the tree. It was a very special time for us! This year, sadly we had two more ornaments to add to the collection. Christmas that year was somber as Josette had already bought us gifts. We hung their ornaments tearfully as we prayed for strength.

Four years passed and by the hardest we adjusted to our involuntary fate and learned to laugh again. Then I had a dream in which Josette told me we would all be together again for November 17^th which was my oldest son Christopher’s birthday. I interpreted it that they would be there in spirit and looked forward to his birthday with jubilee! I shared my dream with my closest friends for their interpretations and they agreed with me. My dream was March 19^th 2005 and on April 19^th 2005 my Christopher was diagnosed with Stage 4 Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. We were devastated!

Josette always told me she wanted to be my angel and she was now forewarning me of more trials and tribulations to come but also instilling in my faith that there truly was a hereafter despite my silent and sometimes angry objections.

Christopher was tended to by a highly respected oncologist and I took to the health food stores for alternative aid in keeping my son alive. By August of 2005 after intense treatments of chemotherapy and vitamin regimen, the Dr. was amazed at Christopher’s progress and felt he would go into remission. We were elated!

Then, August 29^th Hurricane Katrina wielded her evil intent upon New Orleans and all our dreams were dashed. Christopher was in the hospital to receive possibly his last chemotherapy but Katrina had other intentions as she swept across our city and surrounding suburbs bringing normal life as we knew it to a swift halt! There was but a skeleton crew of nurses and Dr.’s and an influx of patients from surrounding hospitals that were rendered uninhabitable. There were no sterile fields for Christopher’s infected portable catheter to be replaced and he succumbed after the cancer had time to become immune to the treatments.

I wrestled with the agonizing decision to remove him from the ventilator as advised by the doctors. Watching him suffer ripped my heart apart. My mother was angry with me and in denial when his organs began to shut down and there was nothing else I could do but relieve him of his inevitable pain. He could not talk but I had to ask him one important question and that was had he seen his sisters and Daddy. Although in a coma he nodded his head vehemently and I believed his every last ounce of strength that it took him to reassure me!

My November 17^th passed away quietly with his loved ones surrounding him on October 17^th, 2005 at the tender young age of 24 as the room grew brighter than normal for a brief moment. I knew then that angels surrounded us in a love that was and is INDESCRIBABLE!

My two remaining sons have grown up wise beyond their age and our Christmas tree is now the TRUE meaning of Christmas!

Marla Cerise and her two sons, George and Geno — Marla Cerise's sons, George and Geno

There is so much more to tell but is difficult to explain in compact form.

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How the events changed my life: My children, both alive and deceased have given me strength in more ways than one and the courage to look at life with the wine glass half full! I hope to inspire those who are dealing with tragedies in a positive light so they know that our loved ones are never far away from us…Love is what it’s all about!

Marla Cerise Bio: I was born in Rockford, Illinois and my family moved to New Orleans when I was five. My mother is from Sicily and my father’s parents are from Stockholm. I was a medical office manager for 22 years for an ambulatory surgical unit until Hurricane Katrina forced me into retirement. I sometimes work on our shrimp boat with my (Knight in Shining Armor) husband Will, who has been my rock of Gibraltar throughout the years!

I am in the process of writing a book about my family which includes “Our memories of a Haunting.” I just finished my first novel The Dark Side of New Orleans and hope it will soon be published! I am very blessed to have a loving and supporting family and hope to live happily ever after in our 107 year old house in Kentwood, Louisiana!

Marla can be reached via e-mail:

ceriseam@bellsouth.net

Sonia Says: I cannot even put myself in your place with all the tragedies you’ve been through during your lifetime. I am also thinking of your sons, George and Geno, what they went through and saw during their childhood. You amaze me with your strength to continue and I am grateful that you found a wonderful man, Will, to take care of you and your sons. I wish you all the best, and thank you for being so open to share your life.

Please leave your comments for Marla below. She’ll be over to answer them. Thanks.

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Please VOTE for your favorite May “My Gutsy Story.” The winner will be announced on June 14th. Winner gets to pick their prize from our 14 sponsors.

Good Luck to all of you. Your stories are amazing and inspiring. Please share these stories with friends and fellow writers and bloggers by clicking on the SHARE links below.

***

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story” you’d like to share?

To submit your own, “My Gutsy Story” you can find all the information, and our sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here.

Please share the “My Gutsy Story” series with others on Twitter.

Thank you.

“My Gutsy Story” by Doug Edwards

June 4, 2012 by Sonia Marsh

Travel… Embrace It Enthusiastically At Any Age

Medical professionals tell us that our most impressionable learning years are between the ages of one and three years. It is in that early period of our lives that we absorb experiences and teachings without fear, or of any thought or contradiction. We accept with great enthusiasm things that we have been shown or taught.

The reason we don’t show any fear, or question, is of course, we don’t have any life experience at that early age to compare and question. Our young brain simply cannot “work it out”. It has nothing stored… it has no life experience.

So what goes wrong…where does the enthusiasm go? Nothing goes “wrong”. We just “grow up”. We all have personalities that start developing in our infant years and continue through to the adult stages of our lives.

A slow start. A true story. I was born into a poor working class environment in a town close to London, England. At the age of two, due to my mother becoming ill and unable to care for me, I was put into the care of a “Legal Guardian”, a form of adoption. I can remember the day I was “handed over” as if it were yesterday. At two I had no real idea of what was going on, except to say, a lot of new faces appeared and people paid me attention. It was some years later that I met my mother and father again, but never lived with them.

Things didn’t start falling into place until a few years later when I realized that my situation was different, my background was different. I would hear comments such as “it’s a pity, he’s such a nice boy’” and “what will become of him.”

DougEdwards11yo — Doug Edwards at eleven

At the age of eleven, I decided that I was not going to stay in England. As loving and caring as my new family was, my young gut feeling told me I needed to make a change. Yes, at eleven, I already didn’t like what was becoming my life.

I began looking at world maps and wondered what it would be like to visit Asia, Africa, South America. At school, my favourite class was geography and as luck would have it, an Australian geography teacher from Brisbane took up a post at my school. Little did I know… that a teacher with his black and white home-made movies which he’d brought with him from Oz, showing the fantastic scale and lifestyle of his country, laid the foundation of my dream to live in Australia. Even though I wasn’t happy, my enthusiasm to change my situation and see the world never wavered. At age fifteen I knew I wanted to live in Australia and by age twenty-two, here I was.

So what is the point of my life story; the point is that nothing was ever achieved without enthusiasm and determination. When I said to that wonderful Australian teacher, “I think I would like to live in Australia,” in true Aussie style, he remarked, “Don’t just think about it, sport…just bloody do it.”

That teacher taught me something else (apart from swear words). The three words that control our growth not only in world travel but in life in general are: fear, doubt and worry. As he pointed out, “it’s not easy but if you can control those three emotions with enthusiasm, the world’s your bloody oyster..mate!”

As I have matured, I have come to the realisation; it doesn’t matter where you start in life, it’s where you finish, and along the way adding value to the lives of others without personal gain. In retrospect I can thank a poor start for giving me the strength to move forward, as the founder of AIV Group Travel and the many contacts that I make.

It’s clear we all have a story.

Doug Edwards Bio:

In the 80s and 90s I ran a Singles Adventure Club in Melbourne, taking the members around a variety of interstate and intrastate getaways.

Lots of friends were made over the years. I organised regular cocktail parties, dinner parties, and exciting sailing and hot-air ballooning trips, to name a few. I am a travelling man. I have vacationed as a family unit, as a couple, in a group, and alone. Ending up in a hotel alone is the main reason I no longer wish to go solo. Now I am the Owner and Operator of All Inclusive Vacations, a global travel club arranging functions and group travel for people over the ages of 45 or 50.

You can find Doug Edward’s all inclusive travel vacations here and join his Facebook page.

Sonia Marsh Says:

I cannot imagine what it must have been like for you being a child and hearing adults say, “it’s a pity, he’s such a nice boy” and “what will become of him.” It amazes me how we can be influenced by adults, including our teachers and mentors. I also love what your Australian teacher said to you,

The three words that control our growth not only in world travel but in life in general are: fear, doubt and worry. As he pointed out, “it’s not easy but if you can control those three emotions with enthusiasm, the world’s your bloody oyster..mate!”

Thankfully your Australian teacher had such a positive impact on your life.

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Please remember to VOTE for your favorite May “My Gutsy Story.” The winner will be announced on June 14th. Winner gets to pick their prize from our 14 sponsors.

Good Luck to all of you. Your stories are amazing and inspiring. Please share these stories with friends and fellow writers and bloggers by clicking on the SHARE links below.

***

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story” you’d like to share?

To submit your own, “My Gutsy Story” you can find all the information, and our sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here.

Please share the “My Gutsy Story” series with others on Twitter. Thank you for following the series.

Vote for Your Favorite May “My Gutsy Story” + Interview

May 31, 2012 by Sonia Marsh

From May 31st- June 13th midnight, PST, you can vote for your favorite May 2012, “My Gutsy Story.”

To VOTE, please go to the poll on the right side of this post. You will find it on the sidebar listing the names of all 4 “My Gutsy Story,” authors.

Here are the 4 stories. Only ONE vote per person.

1). Teresa Wendel

Teresa proves that with passion, you can accomplish whatever you’ve set your mind to overcome. I enjoyed her story and admire women who can fix things, whether at home, or with their car. As she said herself, “Not bad for a woman who won’t push the buttons on a tv clicker, use a cell phone, or connect to the Internet.”

2). Kathleen Pooler

Kathleen shares her emotional story of the love a mother has for her son, no matter what. There are many parents who can relate to problem teenagers, even though the severity of the situation varies considerably. Kathleen made us realize that “tough love” is often the only approach, and how difficult it is for parents to carry through with this process.

3). Siv Maria Ottem

Siv wrote a beautiful story with a happy ending. What amazes me is how Facebook has connected so many people who may never have found each other. Her personal story offers hope to those searching for relatives or their adoptive parents.

4). Marcia Sargent

Marcia’s story shows how overcoming a difficult childhood brought out the “hero” in her rather than the liar and a procrastinator of her early childhood years. I admire how she chose to overcome her own fears and doubts about teaching, and turned them into a positive way to make children strive to work hard and attain success in life.

***

The winner will be announced on June 14th. Winner gets to pick their prize from our 14 sponsors.

Good Luck to all of you. Your stories are amazing and inspiring. Please share these stories with friends and fellow writers and bloggers by clicking on the SHARE links below.

***

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story” you’d like to share?

To submit your own, “My Gutsy Story” you can find all the information, and our sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here.

Please share the “My Gutsy Story” series with others on Twitter using the #MyGutsyStory. Thank you.

***

SONIA’S PODCAST INTERVIEW ON CASTAWAY AUTHOR

Interview on Felicity Lennie’s blog

Felicity Lennie is from the U.K and she has a fascinating project on her blog. She interviews authors and her theme is “Castaway Author.” You can read her questions and my answers on the link. Felicity interviews authors weekly and if you’re interested, I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear from you.

“My Gutsy Story” by Marcia Sargent

May 28, 2012 by Sonia Marsh

For me, living a gutsy life involved not one turning point, but rather a series of choices that led me on a more difficult path. Some people want to be liked, or rich, or powerful or famous. I’ve always wanted to do the right thing.

Life as a child gave me very little power in a house of an ogre of a father and a ghostlike mother. I learned to lie from my mother as a way to survive my father’s anger and watched her avoid consequences as long as possible.

At the same time I read voraciously all fairytales and myths. Heroes in fairytales are brave and kind, intelligent and honest. They go forth in life and find the magic to slay the dragons, trick the evil witch, and find the golden apples to save the ones they love. Love colored the landscape of my internal world. Finding the magic in the world around me brightened the colors. Recognizing the good in people and avoiding evil ones remains essential to this day. A liar and a procrastinator were not who I wanted to be. I knew I was meant to be a hero.

School offered me an escape from the ogre’s world and eventually I escaped to college, not the expected University of California, but rather a private college half a day away from home. There I learned truth was a gift. The sky did not fall when I told my professors the real story behind my late work or told my friends I didn’t have the money to go to a party or told them what I felt about life. The truth gave them an opportunity to make an informed decision about consequences and friendships.

After graduation, University of the Pacific offered two choices for student teaching: five months in Stockton/Lodi schools or the Collegio Americano in Mexico City. I spoke French but chose Mexico.

Marcia Sargent Wedding — Marcia's Wedding

I didn’t believe in marriage, but found my Prince Charming and chose to marry in spite of my fears. He wanted children. I feared becoming an ogre or a ghost. I loved him and chose to believe we could raise kids together who would make the world a better place. We had three children. Children do not understand procrastination. It is counter-productive to say to a baby, “Wait another hour or so and I’ll feed you–or change you–or put you down–or pick you up.”

My mother raised six children, cooked meals regularly for fifteen to twenty people, was President of the National Assistance League and Junior Women’s Club, but did not want to work. Watching my ogre dad work for 37 years for a schizophrenic boss reinforced work as a bad thing. I joked about being a kept woman, not realizing the expectations of my parents kept me in prison.

After thirteen years of marriage, I was offered a job teaching at my children’s private school in Hawaii. Work? Me? I didn’t know how. I couldn’t. I shouldn’t. They’ll discover I don’t know what I’m doing.

I said yes.

That yes changed my life. I loved making my own money. I loved going to school everyday. I loved the kids. I still worried they’d discover I wasn’t smart, capable, competent. I did my best to make each day magic. I read teaching books and tried different techniques on my students. I gathered my cohorts of good and learned how to slay the monsters of ignorance. And somewhere along the way I discovered I had the power to change lives, to show the children how to believe in their own magic and how to slay their own dragons.

We moved back to California. After fifteen years out of college, to continue teaching I needed to pass the California Test of Basic Skills and the National Teacher’s Exam. I knew I’d flunk them and I knew I couldn’t flunk if I wanted to work as a teacher. Girding my loins, I studied the practice exams. I studied what I didn’t know. I passed the CTBS with a perfect score and a 99% on the NTE.

Marcia Sargent First class in California

Did I know how to teach Early Age Kindergarten? No. I learned how from books and other teachers. I can dance my sillies out with the best of them. Did I know how to teach third grade? No. I leapt in and learned. Did I know how to teach sixth grade? Could I handle thirty-five twelve-year-olds? No. But I listened to other teachers and took classes on classroom discipline. I made the students work and be responsible and to challenge themselves.

Being the fun teacher, the nice teacher would have been easy. That would not help the students on their hero’s journey. Parents said to me, “My student is an A student. If you were a good teacher she would get A’s.” I told them I didn’t give A’s. They had to earn them. They’d complain to my principal. I’d defend myself, and my right to expect excellence. My students learned they could earn A’s, they could get their work in on time and they could have fun working hard. We lived history–we ate, drank, sang ancient Greece and China.

After almost twenty years as a teacher, an errant soccer ball, a broken neck, two surgeries and constant migraines challenged my life. My choice seemed clear: keep on teaching and die early, or quit and find something else to do.

I quit. Since then I have written and published three books, been to nine major writing conferences, learned about the publishing industry, had an agent, decided to leave my agent, kept learning how to revise, learned how to market my books and myself.

My gutsy life has been in little decisions on a hero’s journey. I am brave even when frightened; I am honest even when lies would be easier; I am kind because life is full of witches and demons. I believe in magic–especially the magic of doing the right thing.

Marcia Sargent Bio:

A Marine fighter pilot’s wife from 1975 until 1987, Marcia observed and interacted with military aviators and their spouses when they still had a great time and damned the consequences. When her husband “Snatch” retired back to Southern California, she issued imperatives in her elementary school classrooms and worked as a social studies and language arts mentor for Saddleback Unified School District. A University of California-Irvine Writing Fellow, she wrote the Interact (Social Studies School Service) simulations CHINA and EGYPT, WING WIFE: HOW TO BE MARRIED TO A MARINE FIGHTER PILOT, and two YA fantasy/adventure books: NIGHT MONSTERS and DAY MONSTERS.

Marcia Sargent Night Monsters book cover

She is the mother of three grown girls and Nana to five children all living in Colorado. She never worries when babysitting, only wishes they lived closer.

When not writing, she now walks the sand in Laguna Beach with her husband and a golden retriever named Sir Lancelot. Her cat named Snicklefritz waits at home since he does not like immersion in salt water.
You can view Marcia’s website and her blog. Join her on Twitter
and Facebook or LinkedIn.

Sonia Says: Marcia, your story truly shows how overcoming your difficult childhood brought out the “hero” in you, rather than the liar and a procrastinator of your early childhood days. I admire how you chose to overcome your own fears and doubts about teaching, and turned them into a positive way to make children strive to work hard and attain success in life. Sounds like you were an excellent teacher, and now you’ve written three books. Amazing!

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story” you’d like to share?

To submit your own, “My Gutsy Story” you can find all the information, and our sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here.

Please share the “My Gutsy Story” series with others. Thanks.

“My Gutsy Story” by Siv Maria Ottem

May 21, 2012 by Sonia Marsh

My story starts 35 years ago after I had given my son up for adoption. The years in between then and now have left me searching for part of an empty hole in my heart. I tried to fill this empty hole with something else or someone else over and over again. The pain of such loss never goes away no matter how hard you try to replace or ignore it. It is true that the heart can be broken and the soul can be ripped in two and torn. When I left my newborn son in the arms of a stranger I could only hope that the choices others made for me were the right ones. His tiny fingers curled around mine for one last time and holding my breath, I tried to hold back the tears and failed. I learned then that common sense can be cruel. I tried not to look back as I left the hospital but I realize now that I have never stopped.

Years went by and time healed many scars. Yet, every now and then a small blond haired boy, a certain song, or a faint smell of something familiar would open that scar causing me to bleed again. That is when I would climb into that empty hole and realize just how alone I was. Lucky for me there has always been someone there to help pull me out again.

Fate had been kind to me. I had 3 beautiful and healthy children as well as a loving husband. The little blond haired boy had become a man. The song was all but forgotten, yet there was still a faint smell of something familiar that hung in the air. I tried not to dwell on this. I stopped myself whenever I started to wonder where he was, what he was doing and if he was happy.

On the other side of the world there was a young man who also felt a missing part of his life. His search for me began years ago while his parents were still alive. He never gave up hope, and he never stopped trying. Armed with just the name of an Adoption Agency and a helpful social worker his search was made easier because of Facebook. One year ago on May 10^th, 2011 that social worker found me, contacted me and put the two of us in touch with each other.

Our first meeting at the airport on my birthday, October 9, 2011

May happens to be an amazing month for me. Do you have a certain month where for some unexplained reason, life grabs you and makes you pay attention? May is that month for me. Maybe my mother, who was born in May, genetically imprinted this month for future events into my DNA. I married my husband in May, my youngest son was born in May, and two children who were lost to me found me once again, in the month of May. Two years ago on May 12th my daughter, who I lost through a messy divorce years ago, found me on Facebook. You cannot possibly imagine the effect this has had on my life and the life of my family. In one year, I gained two more children, two grandchildren, a son in law and various new friends including the estranged father of my first son (who I found on Facebook). My husband became a step-father, my mother a great grandmother, and all my children gained more siblings. My son, who lost both his adoptive parents and had no siblings, suddenly had a huge family with grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins. I often think how overwhelming this must be for him, and how many more surprises are still in store for all of us.

The three of us, once lost then found

My youngest daughter traveled to the states last summer from Norway to meet both her sister and older brother for the first time. I traveled there soon after and got to spend time with both of them; I also got to meet my grandchildren for the first time. There have been a lot of first times for everyone and this summer there will be even more. My son is coming to visit us and finally meet more members of his family.

We all connected through Facebook and keep in touch using Skype. My son learned a lot about me before we even had the chance to talk. He found my blog “Been there, done that” on Facebook, went there and read all about me and my life. Questions he has asked himself his entire life were answered in one tiny corner of cyberspace called “Blogger”.

One year ago I got out of bed and started the day with ordinary expectations. When I went to bed the night he found me, I realized that my expectations would never be ordinary again. How could they be? In one year I had given birth to two grown children, and the funny thing is … No matter how grown up they may be, they still feel like— my babies to me.

All of us can get lost, but thankfully we can also be found.

Siv Maria Ottem Bio:

After living abroad for over 20 years I still feel American, and although I am over 50 I still feel like a teen-ager. What started out as a messy divorce, led to a vacation and turned into a new life. After my vacation, I returned to Minnesota, packed my bags and moved to Norway. Working mostly in the travel or health industry, my passion has always been writing. Living here among Trolls has inspired me to write about them, and the culture surrounding them. Currently I am working on a fantasy novel about a young woman who discovers a secret that throws her into a world of “Gods and Fairy tales.” One of my short stories should be published in a fantasy anthology this fall.

Blog: Been there, done that—Tweeter—Linkedin—Facebook—Google+ e-mail

Sonia Says:

What a beautiful story with such a happy ending. What amazes me is how Facebook has connected so many people who may never have found each other. Thanks for sharing your personal story which offers hope to those searching for relatives or their adoptive parents.