Lauraine Snelling reminds us to ‘just hang on’
Lauraine Snelling was born in Chicago, Ill., in 1942. Her mother was a nurse, and her father was overseas defending our country. Back then, nurses were required to live at the hospital and you couldn’t have children with you.
Lauraine’s mom hired a woman from social services to help out.
“I lived with my Auntie Bobby, and my mom came to stay on her days off. When the war ended, I went on my first train ride to New York City where I met my dad for the first time, too. That was very normal for kids back then,” said Lauraine.
After the war, Lauraine’s father went back to school in Bemidji, Minn., and earned a degree in agriculture. The family bought a dairy farm and became farmers. Lauraine says she got her first pony when she was five.
“My daddy put me on that little horse and slapped her on the rump and I fell off, screaming. Daddy picked me up and immediately put me back on my pony. His comment was, ‘Just hang on!’ That was my first life lesson — to just hang on. I’ve remembered it all through the years and I use that phrase whenever I do motivational speaking,” said Lauraine.
Lauraine got her love of horses from her father. “I loved the draft horses because when the kids were around, they would check under their feet. There is that kind of mothering in horses,” she recalls. “I treasure that part forever.” She also remembers the train whistling at night, and learning to drive a tractor at seven.
“We were doing old time farming,” said Lauraine. “And now I write books about that life. I would ride my pony in spite of her stubborn resistance. Polly was in her 40s, and when she died one winter night, that was my first brush with death. Another life lesson learned on the farm.”
Lauraine went on to college where she met Wayne Snelling. Lauraine quit school to get married and have a family. They’ve been together now for 60 years. She and her husband started out as farmers, milking cows. Wayne eventually went into carpentry. They lived mostly in small towns, moving according to where the jobs took them.
They had three children, two boys and a girl. Kevin, Marie and Brian. Sadly, Marie went home to heaven before her 21st birthday, after suffering a second round of cancer.
Lauraine was always interested in writing, but
says it wasn’t until God put his foot in the middle of her back and sent her to a writer’s conference in Portland, Ore., that she truly began her literary career.
They had been living in Vancouver, Wash., but in 1985 the family moved to California for Wayne’s job. Lauraine didn’t plan on staying. In 1997, they moved to Tehachapi, seeking cleaner air for Wayne. They bought a house in which they still live, found a church home, and settled in.
Lauraine started watercolor painting and joined the art family at the Treasure Trove.
She continues to paint and write, and has learned to love Tehachapi. She says there is something here that not only draws artistic people, but also draws art out of people.
Lauraine has published over 100 books. Most of them are still in print, and she continues to work with a literary agent.
Lauraine’s advice to others is to first and foremost have the Lord as their savior. And she reminds us: “Don’t give up just hang on, like my father always said.”