Barbara L. Vanderstel was born in 1944. She comes from a farming background, which she loved. The author's memory is clearly impeccable and it shows through her stories. Barbara was the second oldest in her family. At the young age of thirteen, she was forced to leave her home, as she had the opportunity to attend high school in Saskatoon, as there were no high schools in the rural areas. The little one-room schoolhouse and the simple joys of being together, as a family, and working with her dad, and helping mum with the baking and gardening and caring for her younger siblings stopped. The dancing and singing which was scheduled every Saturday night, for the celebration of working hard all week, came to a huge halt. Now she had to leave the farm and experience the noise and the business of a city life. She worked for a family, which she loved, to help her parents pay for the tuition.
Barbara was not a stranger to hard work, disappointments, and challenges. The hardest was when her Mum died suddenly in 1969, and a divorce in 1970. She went through a severe depression and other heartbreaking times in her family. She gave her life to the Lord in 1996, and the Lord restored her eye sight and she was baptized in the same year in the Killarney Lake in Mb, where she now lives with her husband. Barbara married Bill in 1970 and they have four grown children, who are married and they have blessed them with fourteen precious grandchildren. She has had a private day-care for 26 plus years. She took a two-year writing course "Institute For Writing Children's Literature" from Connecticut and was assigned her own teacher, author and editor. She received her diploma in 2012 and went on to write her first book, A Book of Love in 2012 and Front Porch Tales in 2014.
Both of her books are true, short and heartwarming stories. People of all ages will identify with or learn about things for the first time. Barbara has many hobbies such as playing the piano, oil painting, loving others, learning more about the Lord, enjoying her new home, and cooking, and anything to do with little children. She wants to tell people that everybody has their own story. She chose to tell hers.
Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and future." God is good all the time and all the time God is good.
Bill is a very dedicated and a loyal and loving husband. He works very hard and loves his family. Bill drew the pictures in this book and it made it very special to both of us. I shared with him what I wanted and he picked evenings where he could do his best with no games or noise to interrupt him. He loves to watch football and hockey, and also enjoys riding his bike around town. He loves it when I bake cookies and he can eat them when they are hot out of the oven. We love our hometown and the people, and attend a great church, where the Word is preached. We moved to Killarney from Saskatoon in 1979. We recently moved out of our stone house, which is 121 years old and into a beautiful home next door, which we planned every detail in it, and had it built close enough where we could watch it happen. Both Bill and I are happiest when we're together. We love our families and experience such joy when we come together as a family.
