And I Thought 40 Was Old
Eighty Years of Trying to Get It Right!
by
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Pete’s absences were becoming
more frequent. And my first-born, my
beautiful son
Esther had died of cancer and Percy had sold his ranch and moved to a place a few miles up the river from the Bain place. My heart was heavy for Percy. Esther had been his “rock of Gibralter,” his constant love and support, even when he drank. Percy was a binge drinker, but he kept his sense of direction when he recovered each time whereas Pete seemed somehow to lose his focus.
“I just came down to see how you
were getting along, Mom,”
Laura, Pete’s sister, was at the
ranch with her children. She put
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About the Book
And I Thought 40 Was Old: 80 Years of Trying to Get It Right follows the author's life
through eight decades in a series of vignettes describing her growth from
toddler to teenager to adult, and on. Allyene Palmer
describes the inward struggle to cope with divorce, remarriage, and the melding
of two families of children and young adults into a cohesive new family.
This book tells of the spiritual
growth of the writer, as she "stumbles her way" through the
unexpected pitfalls of life. Experiences described in the book are funny,
poignant and sometimes heart-breaking, and they finally lead to a statement of
faith. She says, "What I know now is that, although I stumbled blindly
through the greatest part of my life, God has loved and protected me."
Interwoven into the stories as
the writer grows up and grows old, there is a sense of an emerging spirituality
that culminates in a firm conviction that she has never been outside that love
and protection., regardless of the pitfalls and
errors.
About the Author
Allyene
Palmer, Ph.D., M.A. Th., looks back upon her life as a panorama of tragedy and
triumph, taking place during the Great Depression and all the years since. It
has encompassed World War II, the Cold War,
Palmer has been married twice.
However, her husbands have been a Native American cowboy, rancher and soldier;
and a bank president, a federal prisoner, a heavy equipment dealer and an
Episcopal priest. The adventures of living these several lives during eighty
years has given Palmer a perspective on life that she describes as a struggle
to come to terms with personal imperfections and to achieve wholeness.
Denied an education in her youth, Dr. Palmer was able to achieve a master's degree in theology at the age of seventy five and a doctorate in philosophy and psychology at seventy eight. She hopes that her achievements will help women to realize that "we are never old until we think we are."