Life is hard sometimes. People get sick, and that’s especially hard when they are children. Sometimes people get better, sometimes getting better takes a very long time, and every day, people die. Struggles can break your heart, but they can also inspire, and little is more inspiring than a gravely sick child who carries on without complaint.
Marvelous! is a happy magazine that seeks to inspire, but it is not immune to being touched by illness and death. The magazine is, of course, created by people who, like everyone, find life difficult at times. It can seem that everything terrible happens at once, but it doesn’t really. This issue is proof. I won’t go into details (everyone holds privacy dearer than ever today). The important thing is that for every Marvelous! contributor, including myself, touched by one (or more) of life’s big challenges in recent months, someone else stepped up to help. We all go through hard times; it’s just so fortunate that we’re not all down at the same time. Thank you to everyone who offers someone (anyone!) a hand up, a kind word, a bit of inspiration. It truly makes a difference.
Our focus in this issue is on history and education, and what better teacher than history? Neil Chandler shares his memories of Grannie Maud Taylor Chandler and the life lessons he learned from her. David W. Benedict writes about the women in the Baxter County Heritage Center and why they are turned on by history. He shares their favorite historical photos. Janet Taber takes us inside the Ozark County Historium in Gainesville and shows us why the center is the cultural hub of the area.
In a nice mix of girlfriend getaway and history, Christy Keirn takes us along on two trips to Top of the Rock at Big Cedar in Branson, Missouri. If you know Christy, it won’t take much to get her to go back with you!
Tamara Styer, originally of Yellville, attributes her success as publisher of Deitra, an online and print magazine promoting new and emerging artists in music, fashion, and art culture, to the opportunity to participate in journalism at Yellville High School. She’s proof that when you hold on to a dream, even a young dream, and don’t let go, you can make it happen, one way or another.
Our Marvelous! Woman and cover girl in this issue is the indomitable Patty Markowski—teacher, girlfriend, and unstoppable champion of kindness. Talk about stepping up. She gathered friends, coworkers, anyone she could get her hands on, to renovate the home of a young mother of three coping with her third bout of cancer. Patty, you are inspiring. M! August/September 2014
Deb Peterson
Publisher, Editor
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