#37 Holly Ritter: Everything Is Going to Be All Right

Holly Ritter never would have been born if her mother’s parents hadn’t emigrated from Russia to China and if her father hadn’t been stationed there in the 1940’s. But growing up a Marine brat was terrible, just horrible—especially since they always moved the middle of the school year, especially since she was a girl who wore glasses (and got called all kinds of names). These early experiences probably made Holly more introverted than she would have been otherwise, which led her to become a great reader and an English major in college (she still writes about her experiences on Steno pads, which she has never read but almost certainly contain a more detailed version of her life story). For the longest time, she would never be the first one to speak, though she has since gotten over that (as you can see by the fact that you are reading about her here). Holly first married at 21 and later gave birth to her first son, but the marriage ended in divorce when her husband left her for the office hussy. Between her first marriage and her second marriage, when the lost child faltered, God spoke to her and told her that everything was going to be all right. It’s a presence, a voice from nowhere, and everything has been all right. She learned to be on her own and got over her difficult childhood. Luckily, her second husband turned out to be the love of her life; she gave birth to a second son and they are all, as she says, living happily ever after. Holly has worked at the same job with the telephone company for 30 years and lived in the same general area for her entire adult life (just in different houses). After her early life as a Marine brat, she doesn’t even like to go on vacation.