From Hogs to Heaven

The Life of Laurel Rae Dickinson

Laurel Rae Dickinson started her life during the Great Depression on an Iowa farm. The third daughter of a farmer who needed boys she was expected to command mules, drive tractors, milk the cows, and keep the old sow in line. While she did her best, in the end she didn't prove as "manly" as her two older sisters and may have been a disappointment to her father. This changed after her "accidental" entry into the nursing profession. She started out as assistant to a neurosurgeon and eventually found the high adrenaline life as an emergency room nurse where eventually she rose to be the director. Just as her career and family life should have been peaking everything started falling apart as she found herself divorced and lying in her own emergency room with a broken neck looking up at her co-workers. For many life would have ended here or at least been dimmed. For Laurel it turned out to be just a new beginning in her journey from a hog farm in Iowa to finding a bit of Heaven on Earth. Follow Laurel on her journey where, through the decisions and deeds in her life, she gives great insights into opportunity, courage, priorities, peseverence, and love.