Writing Journey

Marilyn is an original, I’ll give her that. More than outspoken, more than verbose. She is one of a kind, when they made her, they threw away the key. When she was around, if you heard laughter, it was coming from somewhere in her vicinity. She was funny, but I liked to tell her she was funny looking. I hurried across campus, taking the stairs two at a time to Old Red, also known as the Ashbel Smith Building, on the University of Texas Medical Branch Campus in Galveston, Texa

Karen Hand Allen has always had an active imagination. When she lived in the orphanage, her only companions seemed to be Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox!

It was 1962, the world was expanding, everything from retail to outer space was growing, people were going places, more connected to each other than ever before. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, Pope John Paul XXlll was Time Man of the Year and the first Walmart opened in Rogers, Arkansas, just months after the first Target store opened in Roseville, Minnesota. My world was changing too, expanding from being an orphan at The Galveston Orphan’s Home , t

Life at the Galveston Children’s Home wasn’t easy for Karen Hand Allen, but it was full of imagination and small joys. From quiet moments of reflection to adventures sparked by her vivid imagination, this is the story of a childhood shaped by resilience and wonder.