Literary Las Vegas: “Family of Miracles” by Arlene Smith
Las Vegas author Arlene Smith and her late husband, Lincoln Amos Smith, had a whirlwind romance. She was 41 when she met him in a bar. He had two kids, and she had three. After four weeks they got married, and when Arlene was 44 they added an ours to their yours and mine brood. Arlene’s memoir “Family of Miracles” traces the couple’s path across the country raising kids in a variety of homes including converted vans and buses. The book is a follow-up to her 2005 book “Upstep Your Ladder.”
EXCERPT FROM ‘FAMILY OF MIRACLES’
We argued a lot because I was not going to let any man control me again and he had a temper that could ignite a forest fire, not to mention mine. If that was an indication we were soul-mates then we didn’t have to prove it. I think we both anticipated it wouldn’t work but hoped it would. Why doubt it? With the four marriages he swam through, and the one I plowed through, how could we go wrong?
“All you want from me is a baby sitter,” I dug at him, which I knew was going to stir the fire. Wrong! Anything could pop out of that man’s mouth. With his charm and magnetic smile, he gave me a shocking answer, “For a baby sitter I would pay by the hour, but for my darling wife I would give my entire check.” What was there not to love about this man?
