I was born in Nebraska, the third of eight children, near the end of World War II. Since we lived in poverty, I started working summer jobs when I was twelve. I cleaned a motel for $.35 an hour and detasseled corn for $.50 an hour.
At age 15, I enrolled at Nebraska Christian High School and worked my way through by cleaning for the school. I then attended Grace Bible Institute in Omaha, Nebraska, where I met my husband Peter. We married in 1965, a few months after graduation.
Gospel Missionary Union (now Avant Ministries) accepted us as candidates for missionary service in 1966. We spent a year at Rio Grande Bible Institute to learn Spanish before heading to Panama in 1968. There Peter pastored a church and we both taught in a Bible Institute for Panamanians.
We moved to Canada in 1969, where Peter’s family lived, built our first home and started Boldt Pools Ltd. in 1975, where I worked for nearly thirty years.
In 1997, I graduated from Tyndale College and Seminary with a Master of Divinity in Counseling and started my own counseling practice.
I enjoy writing everything from children’s stories to serious research articles. I edited my husband’s two books, “Out of the Jungle,” and “Back to the Jungle.” I also edited Jacob Braun’s book, “Long Road to Freedom,” which won a first-place national award.
In 2014, I wrote “Blemished Heart,” a young adult novel based on my childhood. It won the first place 2015 Word Guild Award.
In 2017, I published my first illustrated alphabet book, “I Love U,” on CreateSpace.
Two years later I wrote and illustrated “A Goose Plays Chicken,” about a family of Canada geese who spent the winter in Myrtle Beach, SC and the summer in Wawa in northern Ontario.
My latest book, “Epic Grand-parenting,” relates what I did with my grandchildren at “Oma’s Camp” each summer–Spanish camp, sewing camp, writing and illustrating camp and a memorable trip by train in 2016 to Ottawa, the capital of Canada.
Peter and I have four married sons, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.