In 1995, Freddie Goodpasture started to notice a tremor in her seventy-seven-year-old hands as she wrote letters to shut-ins. For many people her age, that wouldn't be a problem. But Freddie wrote two such letters a day, everyday...750 a year.The universal advice from her friends was, "Get a computer." And so, well into her seventh decade, Freddie decided to master the computer.

Her nephew went with her to a computer store, and they bought everything the salesman showed them. She recalls that when it all arrived at her high-rise condominium, it was like a ship's christening, with friends and relatives and video cameras to record the event. The computer had barely been setup and turned on when the phone rang.

"Do you want me to answer the phone?" asked the computer.

Freddie recalled that she nearly went into hysterics. "All I want to do is write a letter!" she wailed.

That Freddie Goodpasture would decide to learn the intricacies of the computer at age seventy-seven comes as no surprise to those of us who know her. After all, she went from a childhood of outdoor plumbing and no electricity to rescue a savings and loan institution, and did it through a combination of insatiable curiosity, faith, pluck, and an absolute belief in her grandfather's advice: "Don't be afraid to say you don't know something. But when you ask for answers, go right t the top."

Her story reads like a novel: Girl from the country goes to the big city, is be3trayed and shamed, but fights back. Along comes Prince Charming to take her away to a life of luxury. But real life seldom has such neat Hollywood endings, and Freddie's was real life. There were more misfortunes, and even a second Prince Charming, along with a late-in-life career as the rescuer of a Nashville savings and loan company in which she and her husband had invested.

But back to the computer. We have Freddie Goodpasture's story, From Neri to Nashville, because the computer gave her a tool to be used by her restless mind.Freddie is a woman who lives by faith, and has remarkable insight into her own life; the blessings and almost unbelievable turns it has taken. With the new computer, she decided that she now had the technology to help her tell her story. As was typical for her, she admitted what she didn't know, and hired a young man to tutor her. She said to him, "Can you pretend you are teaching a pre-schooler? I will have two or three questions for you each session, I want you to read the question, then show me the answer on the computer." And so little by little, she learned to use the complicated technology of the late twentieth century. (As I write this, I envision some twenty-first century reader picking up this book, at a time when computers have become as ubiquitous and easy to use as the telephone, and laughing at our struggles to learn computing.) I remember her absolute delight the first time she received an e-mail letter from me, and was able to answer it. We have since kept up a lively and interesting correspondence.

When she first approached me about writing her memoirs, I had one piece of advice for her: "Let your own voice come through, don't try to mimic other writers. Tell the story as you would tell it to your grandchildren." So, this is her story, in her own words. It is a story of faith and strength and the loving support of a family. It is a story of generations with Freddie at it's center. Her forebears in Hood County, Texas went back five generations before her, and strech forward four generations from her.

It is said that "To write is to live twice." Freddie Goodpasture will always live in the memories of those of us privileged to know her. But life and memory are short, and eventually we will all be gone. However, Freddie will live on and on, a presence in the lives of her great-grandchildren and generations unborn, through the gift of her book.

John Dancy