Earlene Roberts will sign copies of her book “Rainbows and Silver Linings: Poems and Reflections of Hope, Life, and Memories” at The Terrace at Mountain Creek on Friday, June 4 at 2:30 p.m. and at Ashland Terrace Christian Church on Sunday, June 6 after the morning service.
“It’s so exciting to see my name on a book; it’s amazing,” said Roberts, age 88. “I keep thinking, my husband would have been so proud of me.”
“Rainbows and Silver Linings” is a compilation of poems and essays written over the course of Roberts’ life on subjects such as God, nature, family and friends and significant memories.
“I’ve been writing since I started teaching during World War II in a one-room schoolhouse in Illinois,” said Roberts. “I would make up songs and poems to help the kids learn things and continued writing at the different places I taught.”
She said she now feels compelled to write, as if it is something she must do rather than simply a way to pass the time.
“A great lot of my poems have to do with religion,” said Roberts. “I have to praise God and give him all the credit – without his help I never could have done it.”
She said she has written many poems since moving into The Terrace five years ago, more than 90 of which are not included in her book.
“I never aimed to start writing a book; I just wrote poems,” said Roberts. “I’m hoping that some of my poems may lead people to Christ, and I hope they will be inspired. I hope they will find comfort and I hope in some way it will ease life’s burdens they may have. I hope it will jog some memories for them and I hope they will find a chuckle or two here and there.”
IF YOU GOThe Terrace at Mountain Creek is at 1005 Mountain Creek Road and can be reached at 874-0200. Ashland Terrace Christian Church is at 915 Ashland Terrace and can be reached at 875-2861.
Roberts is now legally blind and said she must use a magnifying machine to read over her “scribbles.”
She said she was waiting in the car one day for her son Stephen Roberts, who was instrumental in the book’s publication, when she saw a cloud with a silver lining and immediately knew the title of her book.
Roberts said she has always loved rainbows as well, and is referred to as the “Butterfly Lady” due to her affinity for the insects which cover the walls and ceilings of her apartment.