Born: I was born in Washington, Indiana. I lived in seven states and had nothing but fun.

Childhood: And my mother didn't want me in the house, so every day when I went out to play she'd lock the door and say, "Don't come back till supper." and the whole town was mine! Any time I had to go to the bathroom, I'd knock on the door and say, "My name is Lousie M. daddy's preacher down here; Can I use your bathroom?" Nobody ever turned me away. I even went for lunch and this was during the depression. Nobody ever turned me down. Whenever my daddy left the house she'd always say, "Take Lousie, take Louise!" And I went to every funeral he ever had; so I have a very different view than most on death than most people, and I can't wait to go to heaven! So when daddy came home one day and said we're going to move, I couldn't wait. It was wonderful; I got a whole new town. I never held it against my mother, because I had so much fun.

Family Time: We used to always play cards or games to pass the time and entertain our selves.

The Great Depression: Daddy's salary was affected, you can imagine that people wouldn't give to the church if they had to feed their family. But the farmers felt so sorry for us and they gave us food to the point where it was embarrassing. We had more food than we could eat! And yet we hated to give it away all the time, because that looked strange. Mother was very careful, we canned a lot of stuff and did things like that. I'm sure that the depression effected everyone, but it effected us the least. Like I said, you were so safe on the street; I mean I was outside by the age of five until dark. And I was all over the place. But you wouldn't let a little girl do that now.
College: I went to his college; Daddy was on the board at DePauw University in Greencastle Indiana. He told me I was going to college, weather I wanted to go or not; I hadn't planned on going. But I loved History. I've done a lot of writing and otherwise. I graduated, of course, from DePauw.

Marriage: I married this man from college and he was raised as Pennsylvania Dutch; they are very special religious people, so he didn't drink, he didn't smoke, didn't swear, and he never got angry. Can you imagine that kind of a husband? After a few years, I finally said, it might be fun for us to sit before dinner and have a glass of wine; would you like to try a glass of wine? He said sure and he drank wine from then on.
I don't know how I was that lucky until I talked to other women.
Getting Pregnant: The interesting thing was that I couldn't seem to get pregnant. Finally after four or five years I got pregnant and I was so thrilled and the baby was full term and died right away after four days. So we thought well, we'll just have another one. We did and the baby died again, same way full term, he died in about seven days. And I had a third baby and she died. They found out finally that he and I were both carriers of cystic fibrosis. Had they had just found out what it was. So then they suggested that we adopt children and not have our own. He and I talked it over and both of us agreed that we didn't want to raise someone else's child. So sure enough I got pregnant, and we were praying like crazy every night out loud, "Dear God"¦" and we had a son! Then he said, "Mom I want a baby sister." And then he prayed for a baby sister, I didn't. And he got one!

Traveling: He loved Switzerland, he took me to 45 countries and six continents and three cruises. He was just fun fun fun!

Retiring: So my husband did some research on retirement homes and picked the best one on the Eastern Seaboard, in Jacksonville Florida, and I said lets go! My husband had never been sick the whole time we were married. His knees were bothering him and he said, "I don't think that I can go back to Switzerland." So he decided to go get it fixed. Mayo Clinic was part of the retirement home where we lived in Jacksonville and they said that there was a place there in Jacksonville that did nothing but fix knees, they have a whole hospital just for that. So they suggested that we go there. He went there caught a virus and died.

God filled my life. I have never spoken to any other person who felt the presence of God, like I did. So my life has been joyful, and pleasant. I still pray every night, out loud and thank god for my wonderful life so filled with happiness. I loved music and was a high soprano with the Pittsburg Symphony for three years. I played the piano, violin, and cello. I make things of various kinds- needlework, woodwork, sewing, and write lots of poetry. Gardening was also a great joy. I'm sure arriving in heaven will be an opportunity to see those I love and family members, as well. I'm not at all afraid of dying!

I want to thank the people at the Elms for being so kind and helpful to me, while I was working on my Girl Scout Silver Award. It truely seems like a wonderful place to live.
Sincerely -Morgan Manter