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Writings
Portfolio
Books by Eileen Slifer, Artist
My Etsy Store
My Patreon
About the Artist
Contact
Subscribe

Life Stories

“I Don’t Think I’ll Do Such a Big Garden Next Year”

June 18, 2023
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Life Stories, Personal Writings, Writings

This year for Father’s Day, I write to honor two other father figures from my life–my Uncle Bill and my first father-in-law, Henry (Dad). After my father died when I was sixteen, I increasingly began to look to my Uncle Bill and Aunt Virginia as two blood relations that stepped into the role of parental substitutes, to some degree. But before I talk about these things, I want to go back to various interesting Old Testament stories and/or practices which...

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By eileenslifer
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All My Life You Have Been Faithful

June 8, 2023
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Beautiful Song and Poetry Lyrics, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Writings

I was baptized into Christ as a believing adult in the summer of July 1983 (according to the film development date on back of some old photos) in a creek on a property owned by the minister of a church I had become involved with during my early college years. Those who planned to be baptized that Sunday were asked in advance to come prepared with some type of statement of faith to verbalize, or a scripture to speak that...

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By eileenslifer
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She Made Her Own Shroud

May 16, 2023
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Personal Writings, Writings

Mary Dalton (Williams) would be my maternal great great great grandmother. I’ve been reading through various family history in connection with some of my writings here. I was contemplating that one of the things my great grandmother (Margaret Jane Kennedy Carter) most recalled when she gave contributions to this extensive collection of genealogy and stories, was that her grandmother made her own shroud. Out of curiosity I did a quick search on making your own shroud to see if it...

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By eileenslifer
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Meet Carter Linger

May 16, 2023
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Writings

I first heard about my mother’s brother Carter and his untimely death from my mother. As I recall, whenever she spoke of Carter she talked about him having diabetes, being “rolly polly and fat” (I have her on a home video mentioning this in an offhand remark) and his death being caused by him falling off a rocking chair from a porch. I believe my mother also said he was drunk at the time of his fall. At other points,...

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By eileenslifer
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How I Fell in Love With My Mother

May 14, 2023
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Writings

It took me nearly sixty years, but I think I finally have fallen in love with my mother. I will never be as much in love with my mother as I was with my father, but I had an unusual breakthrough. What woman isn’t ‘in love’ with their mother? It’s why they shop together and bake together, and share women stories and woman jokes. It’s why they fix each other’s hair and eat chocolates together and put on nail polish...

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By eileenslifer
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Blessing, Cursing and the Irish

May 12, 2023
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Life Stories, Personal Writings, Writings

Anyone who knows an impressionistic bit about Irish/Celtic culture and history might readily think of various poetical Irish Blessings such as, “May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.” I was able to type the above from memory not because I necessarily...

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By eileenslifer
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Various Thoughts About Generational Blessing and Cursing

May 9, 2023
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Writings

I’ve been thinking on these things for quite awhile. Those who have been in various Christian settings have likely heard references to a number of scriptures that indicate that both spiritual blessing (legacy) and spiritual cursing (legacy) can flow through families in a variety of ways. It feels daunting in my mind to lay out too many different scriptures (let alone connect them to family specifics) that one should seek to better understand regarding these things, so I will try...

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By eileenslifer
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Who Were You Before You Found Yourself in This War?

April 11, 2023
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Life Stories, My Poetry, Personal Writings, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings, Writings on Violence in its Various Forms

“Who were you before you found yourself in this war” ~from an email to myself4/6/2018, 1:29 AM In one of my favorite scenes from Saving Private Ryan, the Captain Miller’s small band of men are at such internal odds with one another over various things, and, the mission itself, that they are on the brink of making a new war between themselves. It is then that the Captain (played by Tom Hanks) has the wits about him how to deflect...

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By eileenslifer
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My Great-Grandfather Was Literally Pierced Unto His Death During Christmas of 1893

January 23, 2023
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Writings

Jacob Albert Carter was born in 1850 and died on December 27, 1893 at the young age of forty-two, leaving behind his widow (my mother’s mother, Margaret Jane Kennedy Carter) and eight children ranging in age from six to nineteen years old. Jacob was a farmer, of thin build and medium height and “had a mustache.” I suppose this might describe a lot of his contemporaries in Braxton County, WV. The general account of Jacob’s untimely death is as follows:...

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By eileenslifer
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Jacob Albert Carter

January 23, 2023
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles

Jacob Albert Carter was born in 1850 and died on December 27, 1893.1 MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER WAS LITERALLY PIERCED UNTO HIS DEATH DURING CHRISTMAS OF 1893 __________1Pg. 24-25, The CARTER, ALKIRE, KENNEDY, WILLIAMS and Related Families, by Judge James M. Carter, published 1977....

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By eileenslifer
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Eileen Slifer

I am a visual artist who works in a variety of mediums - producing fine art, illustration and design commissions/products for clients. I have been creating since childhood and sharing my giftings for hire since 1989. I also love to write and have been expressing in this way for a number of years in private poems, stories and journals that have been shared with treasured friends or publicly. Thank you for visiting my blog. I value the time and interest you spend on my expressions, and I read every comment.

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