Overview

What if the Mennonite life young Marian Longenecker chafed against offered the chance for a new beginning? What if her two Lancaster County homes with three generations of family were the perfect launch pad for a brighter future? Readers who long for a simpler life can smell the aroma of saffron-infused potpie in Grandma's kitchen, hear the strains of four-part a capella music at church, and see the miracle of a divine healing. Follow the author in pigtails as a child and later with a prayer cap, bucking a heavy-handed father and challenging church rules. Feel the terror of being locked behind a cellar door. Observe the horror of feeling defenseless before a conclave of bishops, an event propelling her into a different world. Fans of coming-of-age stories will delight in one woman's surprising path toward self-discovery, a self that lets her revel in shiny red shoes.

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9781733585200

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In Mennonite Daughter--Story of a Plain Girl, Marian Beaman invites you into a world gone by with a loving tribute to her Mennonite family. We learn how we may cling to our roots while needing to find our own path, and how our growth can include respect for the past while creating new family traditions. You will be charmed by her depiction of a simple, plain life in a Mennonite community in the fifties, and her gentle shift into modern times. --Linda Joy Myers, Founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, author of Don't Call Me Mother and Song of the Plains

Author Information

Marian Longenecker Beaman is a former professor at Florida State College in Jacksonville, Florida. Her memoir, Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl, records the charms and challenges of Mennonite girlhood in mid-twentieth century Pennsylvania. The writer's formative years coincided with the decade before which the Lancaster Conference of the Mennonite Church experienced major change, especially regarding dress code for women. Such is the backdrop for the story of one Mennonite girl who benefited from a sheltered life with boundaries, but who bucked church tradition along with coming to terms with an adversarial relationship with her father. She shares her story to preserve these memories, the bitter with the sweet, and to leave a legacy for future generations. One of Marian's stories, Gutsy in Ukraine, was published in My Gutsy Story Anthology by Sonia Marsh, September 2014. Another story, Making Love Edible, appeared in the Food and Faith issue of The Mennonite, September 2016. The Jacksonville Arts and Antiques magazine published a personal profile in the December 2018 issue. Her memoir was featured in the National Association of Memoir Writers' Virtual Book Club, 2019. The author writes weekly on her Plain and Fancy blog: https: // marianbeaman.com. She lives with her artist husband, Cliff, in Florida, where her grown children and grandchildren also reside.

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