Tonya's Women's History Month

 

     March is National Women’s History Month. Talk shows and news reports will feature women whom society considers worth of remembrance. They will feature artists who have produced great works of all kinds of arts. They will report on the “first women”,  first woman in congress, on supreme court, attend ivy league colleges,  and so forth. Social media influencers will share about  the “politically correct” women of history.

     I am not a news reporter, not a social media influencer, not a talk show host. I invite you to join me during March for Tonya Ann’s  Women’s History Month. I want to share stories of women most people never have nor ever will hear about. These are women from my history who made me who I am today.

    Opal Ruth McLaughlin Claxton was born in 1910,  she married my mom’s older brother in 1926. My grandmother passed away when my mom was twelve  years old and three years later,  she moved to the “city” with her brother and Ruth. Virgil and Ruth were pastors, so my mother’s spiritual heritage began and grew in their home. Ruth already had a twelve  year old daughter but she took on a teenager who’d been living on a farm with the boys.

     Ruth Claxton,  by all accounts was the quintessential pastor’s wife: played the piano, served the congregation,  opened her home to any and all and was a woman of God. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1964. This was early in the discovery and treatment of breast cancer and  Ruth readily volunteered to subject herself to experimental treatments. Her selfless actions made a difference for countless cancer survivors. She went to Heaven when I was eleven. Ruth Claxton left a legacy thru every woman whose life she touched in her fifty-six years on earth. She may not have changed the world,  but she changed my world.

    How about you? I challenge you to make a list of  “women of history”  who impacted your life? Comment on my website or Facebook page!