Here's a photo, circa 1955, of Eileen's five children -- the Scott family -- twins Cathleen and Cordelia (left and far right), and Jon, Sally and Michael. Eileen sewed the twins' dresses, often making a matching one for herself out of the same material.
In between sewing, gardening and raising five children, she wrote short articles and mailed off a steady stream of query letters to Ladies' Home Journal and Reader's Digest, hoping to one day get published. It would be another two decades, after her children were grown and out of the house, that one of her articles would be picked up and published by Family Circle magazine around 1975. She made a photo copy of the check and framed it -- her first of many. She was proud.
Today, Michael writes textbooks on ornothology and the study of birds, Cordelia blogs (her site was given an award), and Cathy became a newspaper reporter but now writes full-time for Best Friends magazine and Web site while also writing true crime books.
