There was a girl who moved to a homestead on the plains in the Dakotas with her family when she was young. The family experienced hard times on those plains due to harsh winters and summer droughts. She never finished high school and instead became an elementary teacher to earn money to help support her parents and siblings.
When she was eighteen years old, she married a neighbor boy, and at nineteen they had a daughter, so her life evolved into giving up teaching and helping her husband maintain the farm and the family. The tough winters and summer droughts continued, and in addition, her husband became ill and was disabled. After struggling through a few years, they lost a son in infancy and their house burned down. They went looking for another place to find better times and settled in a small town in Missouri.
For many years in Missouri they struggled to get by . . . doing odd jobs and building a life on a small piece of property that they were able to buy with the help of her father. During those years, one of her jobs was writing articles and editing for a small newspaper, and she discovered that she enjoyed writing. She began writing about the experiences of her life and her youth.
By the time she had reached her early sixties, what little money they were able to save up was wiped out by the 1929 stock market crash and the resulting depression. Their daughter, who had attained some success as a writer, also lost everything and moved home to live with her parents. She gave some writings to her daughter to review, and as a result, her daughter helped her make a connection with a publisher.
At 65 years old, she had her first book published! It was the first of the “Little House” series that evolved into “Little House On The Prairie”. The books sold millions of copies and were printed in a number of languages . . . her name was Laura Engalls Wilder.
So . . . is it ever too late or too difficult to follow your destiny? You decide!
