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Lila Leona Ridings Darnell was born and raised in the rolling wooded hills of Terrapin Ridge, a rural area outside of Greenville, Illinois. The youngest of eight children, she grew up just down the hill from the church she, her family and all the families of the other area homesteaders attended. At their late ages, her strict father and mother were a little softer on their baby girl than they'd been with her older siblings. Her father Urban Lee was a millwright in the steel mills of Granite City who loved reading and discussing the Bible and was a gifted writer, and her mother Beatrice cooked, sewed and quilted a wonderful if simple life for her family. "Lila Lee" was married in February, 1961, before graduating high-school in the spring of 1962. Her first son, Scott Alan, became the pride and joy of both of his parents and a large, loving family on September 23, 1963. The young Darnell family traveled much in pursuit of work, settling briefly in Iowa and Florida in between return moves to Greenville. Along the way another son, Roger Kent, was born, on May 5, 1966. Having received the writing gift from her father, Lila learned to tap the well often as a means for dealing with life's joys, challenges and hardships. In 1974, she became a single-mother, raising two very active boys while navigating a career as an administrator and while learning of the unprotected world beyond marriage. During the years when her boys were growing into men, her blood, sweat and tears were all set down in volumes of verses, many of which have been destroyed and buried along with the more difficult memories. What remains is a strong mother and an independent woman, who enjoys a special solace and strength every day from her knowledge of the two sons she helped to raise and the lives they've built from their bonds of love and experience. Still compelled to write both fiction and verse, the writing of this book was yet another example of the way Ms. Ridings Darnell has used writing as a therapy throughout her life's journey. According to the feedback of the many readers who sat down with these pages as they came together, the words have now taken on a medicinal, healing life of their own, no doubt from the sincere desire of this devoted mother to not only make a difference for her son in a time of unimaginable difficulty, but to build hope for all the others who have been touched by the sudden, life-shattering arrival of a paralyzing injury. Ms. Ridings Darnell lives,
works and writes in Orlando, Florida.
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