Linda Royse Lenhardt

If I'd Only Known Linda Royse Lenhardt

Follow the serpentine trail that traces my life journey from 1963, when I graduated from Marshall University with a degree in elementary education, to 1983. Go with me from a slum in Columbus, Ohio to a tiny Bible school in Appalachia; from the sunny beaches and palm trees of Florida to the snow and cold of Toledo, Ohio and Marion Michigan. We study open education in England and take the trains through Europe. We escape a narrow village in West Virginia and family conflict to the wide-open spaces and mountains of Colorado. Leaving our native land and risking all on a doubtful marriage to a Canadian immigrant from Yugoslavia, we find home and employment on the blizzard-swept Saskatchewan and Alberta prairies of Canada. We are amazed and intrigued by the cultures of a Hutterite colony and then a community of Metis. We find our way back to the USA, where reciting the pledge to our flag brings tears. There really is no place anything like home.