I was baptized in the Lutheran church my grandparents attended in 1950. I always knew I had been baptized as an infant. My mom had converted to Roman Catholicism before marrying my dad in 1943, and until recently I always thought I had been baptized at my dad's Roman Catholic church.

Lutheran roots

My mom was not happy worshiping in the Roman Catholic church, so she began taking me to a Lutheran church. I loved going to Sunday school. My favorite part of the worship service was the children's devotion where I got to go up close and hear what Jesus had to say to me each Sunday.

My dad was a great "Do It Yourselfer," so that was what he would do on Sundays while my mom and I were at church. He would spend time with us on Saturdays, and he was the one who read me my bedtime stories, so I had a lot of quality time with my dad every day.

One Sunday when I was about four years old, as my mom and I were getting ready to head to church, I turned to my dad and asked, "Dad, you do everything with us. Why don't you ever go to church with us?" I didn't know his answer, but the next Sunday, and from then on, he went to church with us. It took five or six years of talks and study with the pastor, but my dad became a Lutheran, a Sunday school teacher, and a church officer. When it was time to build a new church building, he was the project manager and head electrical engineer.

One other person came into my life at an early age. His name is John Bruen. We met in 1959 while our fathers worked together to get community members interested in building a community swim club. John was my shadow. He was always there at swim meets to hold my glasses and my towel, ready to hand them to me when I finished a race—he was not the competitive type. He had a big crush on me, but I was nine and he was only four.

A quest for identity

I went to St. Louis University, met and married my first husband, and had three children. I followed him through a "quest for identity." This search included studies of Islam, his African-American roots, and his American Indian roots; membership in a Pentecostal church; a trip to Israel; and conversion to Orthodox Judaism after our trip to the Holy Land. But in the end, I became a divorced "Jewish" mother of three.

Years went by. When my parents were ready to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary, I planned a party for them. I invited all their friends, including Bill and Anita Bruen, John's parents. I didn't hear from John's parents, so I gave them a call. Who should answer but John. We got together the next weekend, just to catch up on old times. One year later, we were married.