Simple Beginnings: A Journey of Faith

By Teri Lynn Gladd

Looking back at where you have been, is not always the easy thing do.  Coming out of this period in my life I have been fortunate to truly understand some of life’s most important lessons, ones that we often take for granted or at least I did. They have given me a new perspective on living and how to live.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664233003

Teri Lynn Gladd

Teri still lives in her home in Upstate New York and plays in the Adirondacks every chance she gets.

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Copyright © 2021 Teri Lynn Gladd.

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and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Scripture marked (KJV) taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New

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Scripture marked (NKJV) taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright

© 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3301-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3300-3 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 5/14/2021

Contents

Preface

Part 1

Chapter 1 An Introduction

Chapter 2 Getting Started

Chapter 3 Faith

Chapter 4 Dad’s Words

Chapter 5 My thoughts so far

Chapter 6 Dad’s Visions

Chapter 7 Samuel

Chapter 8 Dad Again

Chapter 9 Regular Modifications

Chapter 10 FGBMFI and Atlantic City

Chapter 11 What I Remember

Chapter 12 Back to Dad

Chapter 13 Dad’s Last Entry

Chapter 14 Here I am

Chapter 15 The Fourth Calling

Chapter 16 The Margaret Street Chapel

Chapter 17 Skunk Hollow

Chapter 18 Building Faith

Part 2

Chapter 19 Planning and Moving Forward with Life

Chapter 20 A Surprise Turn

Chapter 21 Sali

Chapter 22 Taking the Next Step

Chapter 23 Nine Lives

Chapter 24 Surprise!!

Chapter 25 A Visitor

Chapter 26 Now What?

Chapter 27 The Board Meeting

Chapter 28 Back to Faith

Chapter 29 Miracles? Answered Prayer?

Chapter 30 Powerful Moments

Part 3

Chapter 31 Final Steps

Chapter 32 Moving Forward

Chapter 33 Lesson 1 – Love

Chapter 34 Lesson 2- Peace

Chapter 35 Lesson 3- Hope

Chapter 36 Survival Guide 101

I dedicate this

book to my Mom, who is the strongest person I know. She taught me how to be strong, focused and how to keep learning. Most importantly she never let me lose sight of the fact that tomorrow is a new day and that means there is hope. I never could have done all of this without her having my back! Thank you to my Mom, who has always been there as a support through it all, I love you very much. I am so blessed to have you as my Mom.

Preface

This book is about faith, family and love. It has taken me years to write as it has taken me years to remember all the pieces. I have no idea how I did all of this while working full-time and raising my children. This is the journey of me and my Dad and life afterward. When I was living this I never looked back, I always focused on what the next step was. It took writing this for me to look back at all of this and truly reflect upon it. I loved my Dad very much and he was my best friend. I am so grateful that he and I had no secrets and could have the hard discussions about end of life, what he wanted and what he did not. I always tried to make educated and informed decisions. Thankfully, God always had the right people in my life so that I could do just that. I always had a physician that I could call at any hour. I always had good nurses at my disposal. I am very blessed that I could do all of this for my Dad.

The last thing that Dad wanted in this life was to write book and one more time I have been blessed to add in what he wanted while writing the rest of the story that he could not. The end result is a story of love and hope.

Part 1

CHAPTER 1

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An Introduction

F irst, I would like to introduce myself. I am Teri Lynn, and I started this adventure on my thirty-seventh birthday. It is now 11 years later, and time stops for no man or woman including me. I am going to be 48 but I’ll only admit to 21 with experience and I’ll completely ignore the fact that my kids are both older than that. I have been blessed with great kids. My daughter Morgan is almost 22 and just finished her junior year at Norwich University studying Architecture and my son Garrett is almost 28 and working hard as an Auto Parts Store Manager. Not only are they both hard working but they are genuinely good humans. They are everything any mother would hope for her children to grow up to be. Yes, I am a very proud Mother.

Professionally I am a scientist, a Clinical Laboratory Scientist to be exact and I have been for 28 years. I have had a remarkably interesting career and it is still different every day, even 28 years later. (Wow! That is a long time, but if the truth be told it went amazingly fast.) I work for Albany Medical Center Hospital and I will remain here at my hospital until I retire. My why? you ask- well Albany Medical Center found me when I was fifteen years old and taught me one of the most important skills that I have and that was how to administer Factor VIII to my father at home. (This, by the way, was answered prayer for me.) They helped me to become a better caretaker for my father and for that I will always be grateful. I want to extend my gratitude to them by helping any way that I can to ensure that they will continue to reach out into the community to other individuals like me with those life-saving skills.

When I started this book, I was just beginning to reflect back on my life and I was in such a different place then. It was 4 years after Dad had passed away and I was just beginning to get my feet on the ground and figure out who Teri Lynn was. Truthfully, I hadn’t had anytime to really think about that question or even what I liked or wanted for myself much before then. I was always busy with the next medical crisis with Dad or raising my kids. Now I have the time to reflect and share with you some of the most important life lessons, faith and love, through the story of me and my Dad.

CHAPTER 2

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Getting Started

L et’s talk a little more in depth about where I came from, as that speaks pretty loudly by itself. I am from a little town in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York. My graduating class was about one hundred and fifty-five people; therefore, the town was not very big, but more than just a flashing light in the middle of town. I am lucky to have grown up in God’s Country, where everyone up there is unique, a friend, a neighbor, and collectively my northern family. Almost everyone there is a survivalist, jack of all trades and a naturalist and we help each other. When it is wintertime up there, which is six months out of the year and 20 below zero for some of it, we carry on as if the temperature does not matter! We are Adirondackers!

Growing up in a small town had some advantages and some pretty big disadvantages too. For example, my parents never had to worry too much as to my location because everyone in town knew who I was and either told my Mom or Dad where I was, what I was doing and of course with whom. I remember one-day walking home from high school and my friend Matt kissed me on the cheek for listening to his sob story about some girl who had just dumped him. This was big stuff at age fifteen so a peck on the cheek was a sweet way for him to thank me. Anyway, when I walked in the door at my Dad’s house 20 minutes later, he was wondering what I was thinking when I was making out on the highway when I was supposed to be walking home. Does this remind you of the telephone game or what? Small towns are a lot like the telephone game especially if you are a preacher’s