The Plain Choice: By Sherry Gore
A faith-based memoir
A True Story of Choosing to Live an Amish Life
From the cover:
As a young adult, Sherry Gore dreamed of a radio career, but instead, a series of terrible mistakes left her wrecked and alone. Then one morning she walked into a church and the truth of Jesus’ forgiving love shattered her world - and put it back together again. She began to rid her life of anything that might keep her from God, but still she wanted a deeper faith. Something more.
She chose a simple life.
Why should you read this book?
Sherry Gore grew up in a dysfunctional home. She often felt unseen by her father and stepmother, so she found other ways to be seen. But this led to personal mistakes, more isolation, and unfulfillment. It wasn’t until she found meaning in something bigger than herself that her life changed.
In a way, we all have this story. The Plain Choice takes us through Sherry’s experiences and along the way we might see why simplicity can be a good thing.
Excerpts:
“My name is Sherry Gore, and I am an Amish-Mennonite woman.
It’s natural to wonder how I got from one lifestyle to the other- spray tan to a head covering. The journey was quite a ride, taking me across the country and back again, and there were times in between when I didn’t know if I would make it out the other side. It’s a complicated tale, but one worth telling because of a simple truth at its center:
I made a choice. A plain choice.
We all make hundreds of minor choices every day, but some can change the course of a life. Some choices define who we are or set into motion events too unimaginable to foresee and too overwhelming to understand.
My choice did both.”
“After my half-sisters were born, the new pecking order was apparent: Chris (stepmother) liked Wayne and me, but she loved Somara and April. The tremendous gulf between those two verbs- like and love- was clear the moment Chris brought her girls home, when suddenly it was as if Wayne and I were erased from her memory. Even worse, it was as if we were erased from Dad’s memory too.
It felt like there were now two families living in our home: Chris’s family and Carl’s kids. Dad never missed one of April’s or Somara’s dance recitals, but when I had a softball game, or when Wayne had a Cub Scout meeting, even on a Saturday when my dad didn’t work, Dad said he was busy. I became accustomed to my friends’ parents cheering more on during sporting events. It was as if Dad suddenly became a different man, a caretaker instead of the loving father I’d know before. And when it was time for family photos, we did two sets. One set featured April and Somara, and it went out to Chris’s and Dad’s families. The other set, with Wayne and me, went to our mom.
By the time I entered junior high school, I was so sick of being ignored in my own home that I’d already figured out, as many children do, that it felt better to be punished than to be forgotten. So in service of being seen, I began to seek trouble wherever I could.”
“A professional career. Material possessions. Respect and admiration.
For a long time, I believed those concepts could fill the hole in my heart left when my parents withdrew their love. I had faith in those concepts, faith they could life me up and save me from myself. But there is only one type of faith able to change a person, and unfortunately it would still be a long time until I found that out firsthand.
What I did find, and rather quickly I might add, was that faith in desire- for fame, for respect- only works when times are good. Then they can make you feel invulnerable.”
“In the modern world I felt as if I was always rushing somewhere: to pick up the kids, to get away from someone, to go somewhere, to find something, to make a deadline, and so on.
Time marched at a different pace in our Amish community. We lived as slow as our songs in church. Our news was delivered by mail or word of mouth. I spent hours watching clouds or doing chores. And again, each night-that feeling of wearied and yet satisfied rest. I never slept so well in my life.”
About the Author
Sherry Gore is former editor-in-chief of Cooking & Such magazine, co-author of The Pinecraft Pie Shop novel series, author of The Plain Choice, and the cookbooks Simply Delicious Amish Cooking and Me, Myself, and Pie.