Editor’s note: Jerry Lindsey submitted this article.
When you meet someone on the street, little thought is given toward their life history or how life has formed that person or that moment. However, the person and moment take a personal turn, when the life story of Morrison’s Peggy Medema Jenkins unfolds, in her book entitled Always Good Enough. Hers is a tell-all venture, of an adult who has led a blessed life in the small town atmosphere of Northwest Illinois, while carrying a question of her existence. She explains how her faith gave her courage to make the drive to Wyoming, IL, and knock on the door of a man who unknowingly is her blood brother.
This drive begins a journey of wound recognition and healing, truth unveiling, family redefinition, and the amazing Pro-Life message played out in Whiteside County, IL.
Odell Public Library will host Peggy Medema Jenkins, offering her an opportunity to interact with readers and sign her recent publication. The program is on Monday, July 15, 2019, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30, in the Program room.
Peggy’s life memories begin in a home with her brother Keith in the perfect family environment. She knew her mother gave her up for adoption at birth, because “they were younger parents and wanted to give her a better life.” This explanation of abandonment was adequate for Peggy, until the urge to seek the truth found her driving to Wyoming, on May 8, 2014.
Her writings tell of the details uncovered about her five siblings, but they surprisingly expose her to the fact that her mother was a patient of the renowned Peoria State Hospital (i.e. Bartenville.) Much of the therapy revolved around “shock treatments” performed on those defined as ‘the incurably insane.”
Uncovered rumors told the story of how Peggy’s mother was raped by a hospital orderly. This unimaginable act instantly placed her in another stage of life’s understanding. Her story gives glory to God and places no shadows on her faith and understanding of how God has worked in her life.
She notes that “I was always on the fence on rape and incest until I met myself!” She continues her Pro-life message with the many family photos in the book that assist the narrative. Jenkins adds, “Look at all of the pictures and realize that only five lives would be around today, if my mother had chosen to have an abortion. All of those lives would have been wiped away.”
Always Good Enough powerfully walks the reader through the trials of acceptance and the wounds that are inflicted, many of which may never totally heal. Her greatest method of healing is her desire to tell her story and use her faith and personal atrocities to hopefully educate those who own similar haunts. Jenkins wants to supply hope for the future that she displays so profoundly through Christ.
In closing, she reiterates the point. “I was born of rape, and many say to me, ‘I’m sorry!’ I say in return, “I’m NOT, because I was born!”