Reviewed by Author Anna del C. Dye for Readers' Favorite

These are the memoirs of author and Artist Bertie Stroup Marah. It is a look into her life from before her mother was born to the present day. The reading is entertaining and simple.

The book starts with a tale of Bertie as an insecure three-year-old. Her older brother, Willie, takes good care of her and her younger brother, Jessie. He helps their mother because the father’s work usually takes him away from home a lot.

Their mother was a good girl that, at age fifteen, had been seduced by a twenty-plus-year-old that left her pregnant and alone. She has a hard time trusting men after that, but manages to capture a show cowboy’s attention and marry him a year later. They have three children and live in a two-room house or tents. The children have to move a lot as they are growing up while he searches for work. This means that the family keeps mostly to themselves.

Their mother makes a home for them, no matter where they live. One day their world comes tumbling down when she discovers that her husband has been unfaithful to her with her best friend. She never trusts him again and their marriage ends in divorce.

A few years later, she meets a good man, P.G., who takes good care of her and her three little ones. The story of their struggles is very well portrayed. They have more children that grow up to be good citizens.

Bertie grows up and marries a man name Larry who pursues her relentlessly. A year later she has the first of two sons. Her life with Larry is not the best, he is jealous and has a very bad temper. She had always loved to draw, but stopped after her son was born. After her sons are old enough to leave home, she starts to have problems with depression. She can’t admit that something is wrong. She tries to commit suicide. With this event she learns to take better care of herself, and divorces her abusive husband.

This gives her time to re-dedicate herself to her art. She wins many prizes through her life and is rewarded by meeting a man, Mike Marah, who becomes her husband. He helps her heal and sees her through cancer and the death of her parents.

This book will be loved by those who know her, as the great artist she is, and by any who enjoy frontier stories of hardy people and their families. It is enhanced by many drawings of the family and other famous pieces by the artist herself.