No Rehearsal: A Memoir

When I became an adult at age five, I accepted my role in the drama called No Rehearsal: A Memoir — the person in charge. Would that timid but bossy little girl, lips chapped red up to her nose, mouth covered in fever blisters, recognize the sassy, confident minister, professional speaker and writer I have become? I couldn't have predicted the roles chosen or thrust upon me throughout this drama—nerd, missionary, glamour girl, wife five times, mother twice—or how the four acts would play out with more than my share of tragedy but with threads of comedy and joy.

This memoir takes readers through my fourteen elementary schools, twenty-six houses, three states, and inept, quirky parents. My father married nine times. My mother married four. They married each other three times. The characters in this drama are real—imperfect, complex, sad and funny. Raising my siblings and making my own decisions was background research for the extraordinary demands of parenting, widowhood, the loss of one son and my older son's attempt to take his own life. With tenacity, friendships and accountability as my guides, I struggled to figure out what matters, who matters and whether I matter.