Sarah Walker Gorrell, Author

This little girl was just 4 weeks old when she came to live with us, back in 2012. I often call her "Bella the Beast" because even though she's smaller she holds her ground. Bellas is forever taking her sister, Precious, bones. Precious won't try to get them back......she comes  barking to me!! Just like many "human" sisters they get into skirmishes.  I stay out of the way and let them have their "battle." Precious was three months old when she came to us.  She always loved hiding under tables and things, and she still does.  When I miss her, I just have to look under the Buffet, in the Dining Room, and there she is!! These two little noisy girls have brought much joy to this house, and I decided it was time to begin sharing their stories with others. Yesterday, "Little Bella's New Home" became available (on Amazon) as a Kindle download. It will soon be in Paperback.  I plan to follow Bella's story with a ...

Often, families can become so intertwined that we feel as if we are related. That's what happened, on Saturday. Years ago, James Bennett Nicholson (who was the son of a Methodist Minister, and who became a Methodist Minister) married my dad's sister, Alice Walker. Aunt Alice and Uncle James were like a 2nd set of parents, to me....and their children, Jimmy, Howard, and Teresa were like another set of siblings. The life of Uncle James' next to the youngest sibling, Georgia Nicholson Lane, was celebrated in a small Methodist Church in Lone Star, MS. I had the honor of being able to play the piano for Georgia's Celebration of Life. There's a hymn, "Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place".....and it was evident. There was so much love, in that small church ....where the sun was shining through the beautiful stained glass cross above the Altar. I felt as if I had also lost a member of "my" family. She was one of those women who wor...

It's a given, sometimes I do too much thinking. Well, last night, when I couldn't sleep, I had to do something and getting out of bed wasn't an option. So, I had to find something about which to think. And, I have to say that writing can sometimes just be a pain. Like the sentence above about thinking. One should NEVER....I mean NEVER ....end a sentence with a Preposition, so one has to rearrange one's sentence so the Prep isn't at the end. Such a pain!! For some reason, I chose my trip to the "Inhouse Outhouse" in the Amish home. Now, I really am not intending to offend anyone.....so, if you have Amish friends or if you are particularly close to some Amish people, you may just want to stop reading. Last night, it occurred to me that there was no sink in their "Inhouse Outhouse."  Does that mean that they don't wash their hands after going to the "Inhouse Outhouse?"  I thought I saw a sink, in their kitchen, but I later le...

Happy 4th of July, y'all!! You know, we (in the South) might as well have all been born Geminis. Why? You ask. Because Geminis may forgive but they just never forget. I know this personally - my youngest daughter is a Gemini. She remembers things that I actually question if they ever happened! We, in the south, remember that it was July 4th, 1863 when Pemberton surrendered to Grant. He did it, on a Holiday, thinking Grant would give the South better "terms."  They did. The people of Vicksburg were starving and the Union troops shared their food. Neither did they take the Souths troops as prisoners. Okay, so they were good guys about it! For years, the South continued to "fight the war".....the 4th of July wasn't celebrated. Nothing was closed, in Vicksburg, on the 4th. I'm not sure about the rest of the south. We might as well have been Geminis -----we just never forgot!! Finally, after the allies won WWII we began minor celebrations. However...

What an absolutely wonderful day and afternoon!  Between the time my flight from DFW to DSM arrived, breakfast at Perkins, and Mike's doctor's appointment to remove the stitches from his nose surgery, we had time to kill. We decided to take a trip down "Memory Lane," back to the small town where both our families had lived almost 50 years before. We took off down Interstate 35, from Des Moines, and exited at 'Bevington/Indianola" exit. First, we went toward where Mike's family had lived. Our first detour was to the home of old friends, Jack and Marguerite Gray. We had disagreed on where they had lived. They no longer owned the home, in fact, Jack had passed away many years earlier and Marguerite lived in Indianola. Even though I had never been to their house, I thought I knew which one it was. Mike was right - I was wrong. As we drove into the driveway of the old house - I spotted a statue of the Virgin Mary and knew Mike was right, this had been th...

I had seen the beautiful church steeple, on our way to Rochester, but we were running behind schedule (and Mike was taking a nap while I drove), so there was no stopping for pictures. On our way back home, once we crossed into Iowa, I started watching the skyline. Once I spied the steeple, Mike began to look for the road to get to the church. He turned on Lourdes Road, in Lourdes, Iowa, to get down to 'Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.' It was late Saturday afternoon and the cars in the parking spaces indicated that Mass was in progress. Our Lady of Lourdes is in the Holy Rosary Cluster, with churches from four other towns, and they are all under the direction of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The Gothic Brick church was built in 1901, and at one time there was a Convent and School. Sisters of Saint Francis from Clinton, Iowa served the Parish until the school closed in 1969. Originally, the church was named "The Immaculate Conception," and that is ...

We left Readlyn, Iowa headed to Rochester, MN behind schedule, but I figured that Mike's "pedal to the metal" would get us there "almost" on time. We were on our third day of "road trips" and this one would take us to see one of his twin granddaughters, Morgan, who is in the Finance Department at IBM.                                             As we stopp ed, at a light, on the south edge of Rochester we noticed that their Water Tower was shaped like an Ear of Corn! Mike did some research (Iowa is the Corn State, why does Rochester have an Ear of Corn for their Water Tower?), and we learned that the town is either going to "paint it or take it down" because, at night, kids are enticed to try and climb it. It has become a dangerous situation. Ever thought about putting a locked fence, with barbed wire, around it? We never learned why it's an Ear of Corn! We f...