Foreward to ASK MARY MARKER: A Guide to the Seasons of Life by Ariel C. Silver

Foreward written by Richard and Linda Eyre

This manuscript arrived amidst a major household remodeling project. Our lives were filled with paint and tile, doorknobs and hinges and wondering how we were going to survive another day without the conveniences we had learned to take for granted. Picking up this book was like a delightfully jarring journey from the harried world of thinking about "things" to the stimulating and exciting world of an inspiring life and exhilarating ideas. We were transposed from the domain of people who couldn't seem to get anything done to the realm of a remarkable woman who couldn’t see why anything couldn't be done.

Ramona Wilcox Cannon was truly a woman for all seasons. Over a seven year period, Ariel C. Silver, has combed through 100,000 pages of Ramona's writing and has cleverly woven Ramona's exact words with her own findings to make a beautiful tapestry portraying the spring, summer, autumn and winter of this remarkable woman's life. The result is a beautiful and fascinating picture.

In her youth Ramona discovered that she could be both good and interesting. In an era when only six to seven percent of Americans graduated from high school, she not only graduated with honors but also decided against the advice of the neighborhood girls who warned her that she would never get married if she went to college. In the end she was the third woman to receive a Master's Degree from the University of Utah and also taught there and in secondary schools in five languages.

Her most important career ... that of raising her seven children was enhanced and enlightened rather than weighed down or encumbered by the richness of her ever-hungry intellect. Her intellectually and emotionally intelligent mind helped her to see the joy in life that comes with the struggle of raising children and training their minds. She was superb at teaching her children responsibility and the value of a life filled with integrity and a devoted love of God. As we can now chart the lives of her children and grandchildren we see the remarkable imprint of a refined, well-educated and faithful mother on the generations that follow.

In our work with families over the past twenty five years, we have often said to young mothers, "You can have it all, but you can't have it all at once!" For years we have pleaded with mothers in the thick of raising children to make those children their first priority. We have promised that life is long and has its seasons. Ramona Wilcox• Cannon is a perfect example of this principle. After her children were raised and "on their way", she gave advice and help to literally thousands of people who read her daily column in The Deseret News. With wit and wisdom, she published some 4,000 articles after she was sixty years old.

At age 88, after recording some of her memories, her son Bryant asked what she would still like to accomplish. Without hesitation, she began, "Well, I’d like to finish a biography of my family. I'd like to finish a novel that Dad and I started some years ago. I'd like to finish writing a television script on the life of Socrates that I’m rather in love with. I’d like to finish the South American novel that I’ve got about half written." And on and on about the things that she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Her son Mark wrote that she accomplished what she did "largely by emphasizing different roles during different periods of her life."

Young or old, man or woman, rich or poor, you will love the time you spend reading this engaging story of a woman whose life is likely to captivate you, whose intellect is sure to stimulate you and whose faith in God is guaranteed to inspire you.

Richard and Linda Eyre