Battle Ground author Sharon Bernash Smith firmly believes that retirement is not the end of an active life; rather it can be the beginning.
“When one retires you do not face a life of merely scrapbooking, knitting or sitting in a rocking chair reading a book until you nod off to sleep,” Smith said.
And Smith should know. Since her 65th birthday in 2008, she’s written or co-written six books, the latest will be published this December. Smith is as active a grandma as you’ll find anywhere.
“This time of life for me has certainly been the most creative and I love encouraging others my age to reach out and go for whatever dreams they still have within themselves,” Smith said. “I just never processed this aging thing, I want to stay active, look around and experience everything I can in this age of opportunity, where technology is opening new doors and there is so much to live for.”
Married and raising two sons in rural Washington State, Smith has donned many hats in her life, including a career as a preschool teacher, midwife’s assistant in home birth deliveries, and a Pregnancy Resource Center volunteer. Now, as an author and speaker, she desires to touch lives for Christ through the written word and her own life experiences.
“Writing is my passion and vocation, and I’m having a blast promoting my books, starting with my first publication, Like a Bird Wanders. I’ve never found a passage in the Bible that says Christians should retire, so I’m living my life to the fullest,’’ Smith said. “I’m finding that this is an incredibly creative ‘season.’ I love spending time with the Lord, my family and friends, enjoying the fellowship we all share. Watercolor is another passion, but I’m trying to keep my writing a priority, so I don’t have as much time to indulge in painting as I’d like.”
Smith describes her writing as “faith based for people looking for comfort and encouragement,” and “reality fiction, toward the human struggles we face, where faith and imagination come together, true life issues, and hopefully answers to conflict with resolution.”
Two of her novels are centered in Yacolt and are based on the Yacolt Burn in the 1900’s, which make them especially relevant to Reflector readers.
“Because there are no ‘pat’ answers in life, you won’t find them in my books,’’ Smith said. “However, God is faithful, and my works will reflect Him as just.”
She describes her inspiration to write coming during a time in court supporting a family member in a domestic violence dispute, so she decided to put her thoughts into words.
Smith is the co-author, with Rosanne Croft and Linda Reinhardt, of the historical novel Like a Bird Wanders, Book One in The McLeod Family Saga, and the Christmas classic, Once Upon a Christmas, as well as the author of Book Two in The McLeod Family Saga, Old Sins, Long Shadows, and the poignant novel, The Train Baby’s Mother. Always Home for Christmas is due out this fall. Currently, she and Reinhardt lecture together for Stonecroft Ministries, International, sharing the gospel in small-group settings throughout the Northwest.
Her story What Do You Say to a King? was first published by Focus on the Family and she’s been published in Prayers for Troubled Times. She serves in women’s ministry as a Bible study leader at the Crossroads Community Church, which is held in the Firstenburg Community Center in Vancouver. And lest you think she sits at a computer writing all day, one of her favorite activities is land sailing in the Columbia Gorge - not something most mid-sixties folks, especially women, would tackle, but then nothing about this fireball is mid-sixties, except her age of course.
