Marilyn J. Drew

This week, we enter a new decade. It is a time of reflection for most of us as we look back while pushing forward.

In 2010, I was happily married to an excellent man, worked at John Hinckley Library on the Northwest College campus and was learning to be content with being a long distance grandma to my five grandchildren. I had earned my bachelor’s degree from the University of Wyoming, had self-published two Wyoming history books and was striving to become a successful freelance writer.

In 2016, I retired from my job at the college to take care of my dear husband who was suffering from some kind of illness. He was finally diagnosed in January of 2017 with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and passed away a month later on Feb. 22, 2017.

I was heartbroken! So I listed our house with a realtor in Powell and moved to Sheridan. Then seven months later I came back, as my sister, who had also been recently widowed, decided to come and live with me. That was all well and good, but the life I had enjoyed with my husband Drew caused everything else to pale in comparison. I couldn’t help but wonder, is this all I will have to look forward to for the rest of my life?

Assuredly not!

Suddenly in early August of 2019, a new adventure. Through an odd turn of events, I became the teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in northeast Montana. I have a first grader, two third graders and two fifth graders — and every day brings new challenges and new expectations as I work with my five boys. Perhaps the experience I gained over the years through other jobs was for such a time as this.

How wonderful to discover that I am not too old to still do something really significant with my life. To God be the Glory!

(Look for my musings again each month as I continue to write for the Tribune.)