Above all else she is a woman. A woman with feelings, with needs, with her own thoughts, her own problems, her own dreams. Her age is often indeterminable, but her heart is pure and full of pride in her Southern heritage.

She is a mother trying to raise a family and instill in her children the morales and values we often discuss in our emails...honesty, integrity, love of God and country.

She may be a single parent, struggling to make ends meet, not knowing from one day to the next where the food will come from.

She is a young wife beginning to understand that it takes more than love to keep her marriage strong.

She is a woman trying to be supportive and caring to a husband that is disabled.

She is a widow - spending so much time alone, she sometimes wonders if anyone at all cares.

She is a woman in a wheelchair who can remember what it was like to walk out the door and smell the fresh flowers in her carefully tended garden but can't do that anymore.

She is an abused wife. Her heart and soul bearing marks that time will never heal nor erase.

She is a grandmother who struggled to raise her own children but is now reaping the benefits through her grandchildren.

She is a professional woman in the work world. Working 8 or more long hours each day, coming home tired and weary.

She is a woman with health problems - diabetes, heart problems, arthritis, cancer, etc. - her pain some days so bad it takes everything within her to crawl out of bed.

She is a woman with emotional problems. Her days as long and as dark as the deepest night. Her soul struggles to see the light of a new day.

She is a woman who works long hours at a job that barely pays for the necessities of life and comes home to several more hours of work before she can have a few minutes to herself.

But whoever she is, she is also a Simply Southern Sister.

She may be able to make time available to email her sisters.

She may be able to make pretty graphics to send to brighten the days of her sisters.

She may read the emails and smile at the silliness exchanged by her sisters.

She may send a joke or a special URL to brighten the days of her sisters.

She may reply once a week or so to as many of the emails as she can remember.

She may spend hours each week praying for the requested needs or simply for each of her sisters, just in case......

And in doing any ONE of these:

She may have made a sister smile who hasn't had a reason to smile all day.

She may have made a sister feel special who really needed to be uplifted.

She may have interceded with God on behalf of a sister and had part in a miracle that God performed.

She may have offered some advice that soothed a troubled soul.

And she did all this, vocal or not, graphically inclined or not, because she loves her sisters. It doesn't matter whether she ever receives a thank you or not. What matters is that she has been blessed beyond measure to have so many wonderful ladies to spend whatever time she can with - to read and reply to whatever emails she has time to read - to laugh with - to cry with if needed - to uplift in prayer to our heavenly Father - to love and to allow for the differences that makes each one so very unique and special.

HUGS and LOVE
MJ

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