Helen Steiner Rice's beginnings were not that much different than any other American child at the start of the 20th Century. She was born to a Swiss mother and German father in the small Ohio community of Lorain, where her father worked on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. The family's faith was apparent and practiced through their regular attendance at 20th Street Methodist Church. As she aged, young Helen would become more active in the church through teaching Bible study. Her earliest aspiration was to become a minister, but when poems she had begun to write inspired the members of her Bible Study group, Helen began to realize that sharing her passion for God's grace with others was beneficial to the world.
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Through her high school years, Helen was a dreamer with goals to attend college for a liberal arts degree, followed by law, but life and destiny held other plans. In 1918, the Spanish flu became a worldwide epidemic and her father succumbed to the illness. Suddenly, it was up to Helen to help with supporting the family. She forewent college to take a job at an electric company. Helen proved herself quickly and the company trained her in bookkeeping, something she found to be a challenge but a challenge she easily surpassed. By the age of 25, she was an expert in marketing and the spokeswoman for the Ohio Public Service Company. Still harboring a passion for writing, Helen would create greeting cards and mail them to her family each Christmas.
She met her future husband, Franklin, in 1928 and the two married, relocating to Dayton, Ohio, a year later. The stock market crash of 1929 hit the newlywed couple hard as Franklin lost his banking job. To prove that no door closes without a window opening first, Helen took a job with Gibson Art Company of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1931, working in the greeting card division. Helen's life appeared to be well on its way, but her husband continued to struggle, eventually committing suicide in 1932. Faced with many tough decisions after Franklin's death, Helen decided to keep her job to pay off her husband's debt; her decision would be life changing. Over the next 8 years, Helen established a name for herself as a prolific greeting card writer/poet. By the 1960s, Helen's worldwide popularity took flight with book signings and readings on the Lawrence Welk Show.
Best part of story, including ending:
Helen's life reminds me of my own in many ways. Like me, she was from Ohio, wrote poetry and greeting cards and wanted to make a difference in the world through life and the creative pursuit. My Grandmother was a bank teller and had the opportunity to meet Mrs. Rice before I was born. Her courage, her dedication and her words have always been an inspiration for me and my own words have often been compared to hers.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene in the book is when Helen is faced with the challenge of what to do after her husband's tragic death. Pursuing creative passions often comes with hardship and few rewards that lead many to give up, instead of continuing the journey. Helen's decision to stay the course and keep her job led her to such great things, proving the adage that "good things do come to those who wait."
Opinion about the main character:
I have such admiration for Helen Steiner Rice. Her real and raw talent and longing to make the world a better, happier place for all teaches a lesson that all humans, children and adults alike, should heed.
