Women Wednesday isn’t just for those women you can look up in history books or on the history websites.  It’s also for those women who have impacted people with their lives…because after all everyone is a part of history in some way. 

Today I have chosen an interesting lady who wrote and published her own music, wrote poetry, and played instruments.  Her name was Lena Susan Ueltschi Thompson.  Born in 1914 in Kentucky to Swiss immigrants she was one of seven children.  Besides her many talents, she was also a compassionate nurse at the local hospital until she retired. 

Unfortunately, other than some obituary blurbs, you won’t find a fancy Wikipedia about Lena or her accomplishments.  But I can tell you she was instrumental in blessing four future generations of women with creativity.  If she hadn’t stayed in her small town living out her relatively quiet life, I doubt I’d be here today with my own art in my own quiet town. 

I genuinely believe creativity has a genetic component given the number of creative things my great-grandmother could do.  Growing up all I saw was Granny.  Granny who lived out in the country. Granny who would take me to the flea market.  Granny who would feed me cake.  Granny who would make me cinnamon sugar toast.  Granny who fixed up a painting with pink lipstick.  It wasn’t until after I was an adult that I saw the woman who wrote and published her own songs.  The woman who wrote poetry.  The woman who had many artistic abilities.  And it wasn’t until after she passed that I realized all the women born from her direct lineage are creative in multiple ways. 

I’m lucky to have been able to have so many years with my Granny, but even though she’s gone, I can still see her spark of creativity in my own daughter’s eyes when she reads music and plays her recorder.  Someday I hope she can even play from the sheet music my Granny left behind.