In a few weeks, this website will be rebuilt (better than it was before). In talking with Eric Schuster (who’s doing the re-design), I told him (many times), “I need to know that the comments will remain in place.”
Eric offered many patient reassurances that my 5,591 comments weren’t going anywhere. I was greatly relieved.
To those who have faithfully followed this blog, you know the backstory. My husband committed suicide in April 2016. The man that I thought was the love of my life – was murdered – by the man that I thought was the love of my life.
For more than two years, I struggled mightily to keep going forward. More than a few times, I bluntly and boldly asked anyone still reading this blog to pray for me. In response, many readers not only covered me in their love and their prayers, but they left a comment at this site. Those comments have been such a blessing, a veritable life ring, tossed out to me as I struggled to keep my head above the dark and bone-chilling waves of despair and loss.
And then on September 5, 2018, I bled to death, had a heart attack and died. I was dead (no heart beat and no blood pressure) for more than 10 minutes. I still wonder – how did I come back from that? The odds of a 59-year-old woman surviving such a catastrophic event are infinitesimally small. And, as the angels promised, I came back whole and well. No lingering effects.
How is such a thing possible? It’s not – except for the fact that I have been surrounded in prayers and love. So thank you for that.
Even now, I still cherish every jot and tittle of these 5,591 comments. I re-read the love-based comments frequently, and every comment means so much to me. So thank you for your prayers. And thank you for the love behind those prayers.
And let’s hope that dear Eric will successfully preserve the comments when this site is reborn! 😀
Below are some of my favorite comments from a previous blog.
AND – as always – please leave a comment!
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Dear Gemma has stayed right with me for years now.
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I love these bold comments. And I love bold prayers.
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Comments from fellow “suicide survivors” as we’re known (such as Rick) always touch my heart.
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Short but so very sweet. And touched me to tears.
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And here’s a little Sears House – “The Crescent” which was in Godfrey and was torn down in 2014.
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Sears Crescent, as seen in 1929.
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3904 Godfrey Road is just a memory now.
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Go to google maps 2009, the Crescent was gone then.
My bad, it was gone in 2007 as well.
So good to have you back Rosemary! Love your sense of humor in dealing with life’s’ issues. Keep on keepin’ on. The world is better with you in it. Thanks for all you do for so many.
I am so grateful for you and this site. May you be buoyed up by all the love that comes your way.
Hello I love your books on sears kit homes! We live in a Gordon Van Tine #705, so I love old houses!
Your blog and books have provided so much entertainment, inspiration, and joy to us readers, I hope you find as much joy as you have given us!
Please know you are thought of and prayed for with wishes of peace, health, and happiness!
I’m floored that you’ve put my comment first. God be praised that any good has come from this keyboard!
I have stumbled on to you blog looking for any info. My husband and I have fallen in love with a Montgomery Ward kit home plan. We would love to take the picture to an architect for updating.
But we are unclear about whether or not we have to get permission to use such an old plan. We love the look of the Carlton and the Montrose.
Please any information would be greatly appreciated. God bless you.
Infringement of copyright on architectural works is a long nasty drama dating back to cavemen and the first log cabins.
Montgomery-Ward, which went out of business 20 years ago, operated Wardway Homes merely as a “mailroom,” accepting orders that they forwarded to Gordon-VanTine, an Iowa manufacturer of pre-cut homes. Gordon Van Tine closed in 1947.
Chances are the Wardway and Gordon-VanTine architects are, shall we say, “not in active practice” (dead).
Wardway catalogs were copyrighted. At the time, anyone reproducing a Wardway model would have gotten a “cease and desist” letter from Montgomery-Ward, but dragging people in front of Judge Judy for lecturing on copyright infringement rarely happened.
Montgomery-Ward was more concerned about the unauthorized use of the name “Wardway Homes” to sell ordinary standard-built homes.
The architectural plans providing your inspiration are now ninety years old. Take your documents to your architect and say “this is what we our house to look like. And by the way, you do have professional liability insurance, right?”
If anyone sues for copyright infringement they will go after the architect first. He knows the limits on “inspiration.”
We recently purchased a home in the beautiful McKennan Park of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It is a 1932 Sears and Roebuck Honor Bilt “Lorain” model house. We have the original blue prints and were able to restore parts of the interior that had been changed over time.
Sears and Roebuck opened a mail order store in Sioux Falls in 1929.