I can still hear you being cheerful on the slightest provocation, or no provocation at all, singing as you work and shedding your cheerfulness on others. So let us remember your life, such a life as many women of your generation shared to some extent, though not always with your special trials and rarely with your stoicism and grace.
~ Wallace Stegner writing about his mother in “Letter, Much Too Late” from Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs
A Living Pencil 
Hi Carol, I just bought my first Stegner novel a few months ago. Hope to read it this summer.
Oh! I want to be a cheerful Mom! We have a lady in our church that just exudes Joy and I want to be like her!