Amanda hosts #storiesoftheheart-Hildie McQueen

I was raised by my Mama and Scarlett O’Hara… 

a summary of who Hildie McQueen is.

My mother was most independent for a housewife with little education and without knowing the English language.  She constantly held three jobs, kept up
with five children and a drunk for a husband. Always positive, she was one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known.

You are an American City, she often told us when we complained. She couldn’t pronounce citizen, but that was fine with me.  Who doesn’t feel important being an American City!

From my mother, I learned that it can always be worse.  Whenever she would sit on the couch and rub Bengay onto her sore legs, she’d tell us stories of how hard her life had been in Mexico, she took me to events in life that I couldn’t even imagine.  In other words…don’t complain.  Instead find a way to make things better.  Her mantra was “You have so many opportunities here in the United States.  Don’t waste them.”  I heard this so many times, I would repeat them at the same time she did.  Sometimes she’d throw a shoe at me.

Growing up poor and not fitting in was confusing. When we moved to California from Mexico I was about six. I wore two braids every day, so I didn’t look like any of the others at school. The kids thought my sister and I were Native Americans and would jump around pretending to do rain dances.  In Mexico, the natives are Mayans and Aztecs so we didn’t quite understand what they were doing.  I did know they were being mean.

So, I became lost in books at an early age.  My favorite books were of Dorrie the Little Witch, by Patricia Coombs.  Not sure if any of you ever read them. Dorrie didn’t quite fit in with the other witches and her socks never matched.  I was so excited that I could be like Dorrie.  Remember my mother always working and me having four siblings?  Yep, my socks rarely matched.

At about twelve, my parents started having major problems, our house burned down and my father’s drinking was getting pretty bad. So, we moved into the barrio in Southern San Diego. There we became part of a lively community.  It was a blast for those few years.  Everyone spoke Spanish and the kids were more like me

When I was about twelve, I stumbled upon a book titled Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell.  I read it over and over, marveling over this young girl who lived alone on a deserted island.  She didn’t have anything and was so strong.  Like me, she didn’t have anything, no money, no toys for Christmas and certainly not much to eat. 

So I could definitely relate to Karana and she helped be stay strong and find the positive in every day. If she could find a way to survive on a deserted island, I certainly could handle my life.

When I got to High School, things grew progressively worse and my parents finally separated.  I remember the day all five of us kids stood up to my father when he hit Mom. It was a crazy night and we ended up taken to a hotel by a social worker.  My poor mother cried all night while my siblings and I had a party.  We were excited to spend time in a hotel.  To us the Holiday Inn was super fancy.

It was my junior year in High School when Gone with the Wind’s Scarlet O’Hara found me and walked me through the next twenty-five years.  I read the book nine times my senior year. Scarlett was there when I didn’t get asked to prom. Held my hand when I joined the Army and was away from home for the first time ever and she went with me when I got stationed overseas.

Scarlet survived the Civil War and had to find ways to feed all those who depended on her at only seventeen.  At eighteen, I had to support my mother and four siblings. 

Scarlet married for financial gain and to help those who depended on her. I married my first husband because I wanted to live in a house and it would allow me to send more money home. Despite many red flags we got married even though I am pretty sure we’d both changed our minds right before the wedding ceremony. That darn Scarlet!

When I ended up a single mom in the rough streets of LA, It wasn’t that bad when considering Scarlet went through having to deal with the Yankee soldiers ravaging Tara. Crips, Yankees, same thing right?

Then when I finally met the man I loved, thank goodness, I learned from Scarlet’s mistakes and unlike her, I made sure not to lose my Rhett Butler.

I think I was destined to be a writer, it took me forty-five years to find the courage to step out and finally fulfill it. Why Romance?  Because I am in love with love.  Who doesn’t want to waltz across a ballroom with a handsome Duke, or ride the high seas with a dreamy pirate?  There aren’t many women who wouldn’t love to travel the Highlands of Scotland and find their own Jamie Fraser. 

That feeling you get when the hero and heroine finally kiss for the first time never gets old and it doesn’t hurt that the lovemaking is always quite satisfying. In the romance genre, there is always a happy ending and when you turn the last page, you do so with that expectation. 

So maybe you are not a reader, but let me tell you something.  It is through the art of literature that we can walk in someone else’s shoes, see distant places, travel in time and more than anything find yourself lost in a story when you need to escape.  I am not sure where I’d be if not for Dorrie, Karana and Scarlett.

Thank God for those authors, the stories and characters that guided me through life.  I am so thankful to have always been a reader, because otherwise I’m not sure how my life would have turned out.

So, I end with this.

Every single person reading this has a destiny to fulfill. Don’t cheat yourself by settling.  Like my Mama always said.  “You live in a country of opportunities, Don’t waste them.”   

What if today you decide to be Scarlet O’Hara? 

Hildie McQueen is a USA Today Bestselling Author of American Western Historical, Medieval Highlander and Contemporary Romance.