Dora Jane’s First Years

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Dora Jane Bedell  1936

Granddaughter of Dora Bell

Mother of DiVoran Lites

Smithy and Dora with Photographer’s Goat

When Dora Jane Bedell’s family first moved to Canon City they discovered that the only available housing was a big tent on a wide space just outside of town. The whole family moved in until they could find small houses of their own.

 Julia May, Roger, and Dora Bedell

Dora says: 

“When we moved to 523 Harrison Street the cave we dug in the back yard, the chase, race, and hide and seek games we played and plays we presented to the neighborhood were a lot of fun. When I was eleven my prayers for a baby sister were answered. Her name was Julia May. She and I and the friends we made kept in touch for a lifetime.  I eventually married one of the boys we all played with. His name was Ivan 

I made it to second grade at the two-story stone Washington schoolhouse before I got scarlet fever. Mabel had already had one child who had died from a similar illness. His name was Ralph and he had a rheumatic fever which advanced to St. Vitus Dance. He was still only a baby when he died. *I imagine that made my mother even more worried about me.  Quarantine held me in my bedroom for six weeks with a high fever. Once a neighbor brought me a lovely tray of food. It had bits of cheese, some crackers, lunchmeat, and candies. I have always remembered her kindness in making it so pretty for me. I had to take second grade again at the big, two-story Washington school. It took me 13 years instead of 12 to get all the way through that and high school. DiVoran went to Washington School too. She also had the same Sunday school teacher Elvira Brown, a single lady. Auntie Elvira loved her children dearly and when she met her husband in later years, she loved him too. 

DiVoran:

I’ll never forget fours and fives Sunday School with Miss Brown. That was where I learned to sing, “Jesus Loves Me” and found out it was the truth through Miss Brown’s stories and tenderness toward us. I met her again when I was an adult and thanked her profusely for showing me the way. 

* Sydenham’s chorea, also known as chorea minor and historically referred to as St Vitus‘ dance, is a disorder characterized by rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements primarily affecting the face, hands and feet.

Sydenham chorea (SC) is a neurological disorder of childhood resulting from infection via Group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus (GABHS), the bacterium thatcauses rheumatic fever. SC is characterized by rapid, irregular, and aimless involuntary movements of the arms and legs, trunk, and facial muscles.

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”