Here's a question to consider:  If you could meet someone from the past, anyone, who would it be?  Leave me a comment and/or blog about it and let me know if you did.  There is no question who I'd want to meet:  Laura Ingalls Wilder.  That precious woman has been my inspiration for 34 years!  Ever since my mother (who volunteered in the library at my elementary school for 7 years) showed me the book, "On The Banks of Plum Creek", I have been a loyal fan of Laura's.  I have every book I could find that is written by her or about her.  I have an old taped recording of an interview she gave on an old radio show.  I've read books from the library about her daughter, Rose, and I think I once read a book by Rose, herself.  Rose was a well-known reporter in her day.  I love Laura's spirit, her determination, her bravery.  I also love the fact that she didn't start writing until she was older than I am.  She said she was too busy living life to write about it.  Because of her, I also have a fascination about the lives of pioneer women.  I know I'm a wimp compared to the women who lived the way of life described in letters and journals about that time period.  In Laura's writing, I find a strength of character, a love for the simple things in life, but also a bit of rebellion.  Being a bit of a rebel myself (ask my husband) I wonder if I got that trait from her as well!  It breaks my heart that her family suffered so many setbacks and some tragedies as well.  I've found this fact to be interesting:  Her mother gave birth to a son, Freddie, who lived just 9 months.  Laura, herself, had one daughter but also gave birth to a son who died shortly after.  And Rose gave birth to one child, a son, who lived only a short time also.  I've always wondered if it was genetic.  No way to find that out.  I digress ...

If I were to meet Laura, I would offer her tea.  I would ask a ton of questions and then I would sit back and listen, for as long as she wanted to talk.  She once said that to remember those things that happened so long ago, she would go back there in her mind and stay awhile.  Have you ever tried that?  In her time, she had no distractions like radio or TV and events that happened to her really stuck in her memory.  I've heard other women of a certain age say the same thing.  That makes me very sad.  Are there too many distractions in my life to be able to remember things well?  Something to ponder.  Anyway, I would probably want to know more about her life with her husband, Almanzo, since that's the period that isn't covered much by her, only through other writings.  I would want her to visit with me as long as she could.  And before she left, I would give her a big hug and thank her for being my inspiration and for sharing her life with the world.  She had no idea that her life would become so important to anyone when she was living it or writing about it.  I am currently reading "Little House In The Big Woods" to my children.  We've read several of her books together and some I think we've read twice.  I hope I am instilling in them the joy of reading her books. 

At a homeschool curriculum fair in Portland several years ago, I purchased a family photo album-type book about the Ingalls family.  As soon as we got in the car to leave, I opened up the book to the first page.  There, leaning against a tree stump, was Pa's fiddle and bow.  I started crying.  Everyone in the car was startled and I had to explain that it was like looking at something from my childhood.  No one and nothing in this life has inspired me as much as Laura.  She died just 6 years prior to my birth.  I was born too late.