Dolores Durando

Now the prairie grasses cover the old North Dakota homestead where the blacksmith shop, with the housekeeping room in the back, once stood. I lived the first five years of my life with my loving grandpa in that back room. I played among the muddy boots of the farmers who sat around the pot-bellied stove, spitting Copenhagen, watching it sizzle as my grandpa worked the bellows and hammered the plowshares.

Now, at 90 years old, I live comfortably and enjoy painting with water colors, sculpting in alabaster, earning a few blue ribbons at juried shows, and for the first time, writing.

Her books from BelleBooks/Bell Bridge Books:

Beyond the Bougainvillea