This is a true adventure story through many family generations with few romantic overtones. But for those tennis enthusiasts around the USA, the name of Charlene Grafton will ring a bell. In this memoir, the life of Charlene Grafton, her brothers, sister and the ancestors before them are revealed. As you read this compelling story, you will find qualities and values you would not expect to appear in their immediate family. Many circumstances could have led to tales of dismay on four fronts but as you follow the adventures of these people, an impressive quality of character will be shown in the names with their struggles throughout the book. This is an appealing family story about the people and the places and events that made me what I am today. It is not about sex or crime stories. True stories tell a tale much better than fiction especially when it comes to family intimacy with their history and choices through the years.
Where did these traits and values originate? In her sixth book the author tells the stories of these survivors beginning with her early life in Oklahoma with her parents and her siblings, then college and nurse training. A series of moves to Las Vegas, service in the Army Nurse Corps, and marriage prove how this middle child tried to be as good as she could be, as best she could. After marriage and five children with several moves back and forth from a small town in Louisiana to Pensacola, shows the breadth of interest from this nurse with ideas for service to her community and her country. The author believes she introduced the term wellness in her popular group tennis instructions in NW Florida during the 60s and 70s with the addition of fitness in her classes while teaching more than 7,000 players before her entrance into coaching college tennis at UWF and later at NLU. Tennis aficionados will laugh and cry along with the writer with how her athletic prowess successes interfered with her marriage but not with her children.
This nonfiction book will equal any of the books written about family historians with their search for answers from family tales to exact documentation proving the true history of hers and our early family American heroes. All of these stories allow for a new direction to bolster family values from a nurse's viewpoint with her interest in her ancestors, in patriotism and giving back to the community.
Other survival chapters lends itself to the men and women who plan on improving their family's lifestyle which will open the eyes of the reader to leave a better health legacy than those they were left. A better answer to health care reform is recommended by taking action within the family rather than relying on individual government support. This memoir adds impetus with the after thoughts of the author, who shows you how to write, help with research and find resources to add to your family's medical heritage and become your Family Health Historian. The author asks that you learn from her lessons in life and to understand the choices she made in her worldly adventures.