Publications

PROSE

Because He Loved Me:

A Story of the Transformative Power of Love

Fairytales, Prince Charming, and happily-ever-after filled Margie’s girlhood dreams. Her love story blossoms in college when she meets a kind, inspirational, and married professor who changes her life. Frightened by their growing attraction, he sets boundaries and tells her to find someone her age. A few years later, she meets a younger man and falls in love. When their marriage ends, Margie gives up her fairytale fantasies. She accepts that she will be alone the rest of her life. Then a letter arrives

This unforgettable memoir follows Margie’s emotional journey through love, heartbreak, personal discovery, and destiny. Written with honesty and vulnerability, the story explores the powerful connection between two people whose lives intersect across decades.

Blending personal memories with reflections on relationships, family, and life choices, this memoir offers readers an inspiring look at how love can transform a life.

Her Publications

Where Stories Come to Life

PERSIMMON TREE – SHORT TAKES

A Featured Literary Publication

Margie Wildblood’s poem “Downsizing” was featured in Persimmon Tree, the acclaimed online arts magazine celebrating the work of women over sixty. Appearing in the magazine’s Short Takes section, the piece reflects on the emotional process of sorting through a lifetime of possessions and deciding what truly matters.

With spare, honest language, “Downsizing” captures the tension between memory and release, what to keep, what to let go of, and how identity can remain even as material things fall away. The poem speaks to aging, simplicity, and the quiet truth that after a lifetime of accumulation, what remains most meaningful is the self.

This publication highlights Margie Wildblood’s distinctive voice as a poet and memoirist, grounded in reflection, emotional clarity, and the lived experience of change.

Where I'm From

After – George Ella Lyon, Where I’m From

I am from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, from red clay and cold mountain springs. I am steadfast like oaks, resilient like maples, persistent like pines, tenacious like willows.

I am from the Crowes and the Thomases, honest, hardworking, pinched by poverty. I am the sixth child of Tom and Mary Edith, from the hammer, saw, and nails of a carpenter, from the wringer washer, rolling pin, and rake.

I am from beans, and more beans—baked, fried, and mashed potatoes, homemade biscuits, lard, and Kool-Aid. I am from the Almighty Car, country music, Vacation Bible School, Jesus Loves Me, guitar playing and singing harmony. I am from a maternal grandfather who killed a man in self-defense. I am bathed in April showers, shoeless in summer’s heat, shrouded in autumn leaves, steady on snowy paths.

I am a first-generation college graduate. I live in suburbia, visit deserts, foreign cities, and oceans, yet I am always home in the mountains.

I am from Virginia’s Blue Ridge.

I am from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,
from red clay and cold mountain springs.
I am steadfast like oaks, resilient like maples,
persistent like pines, tenacious like willows.

I am from the Crowes and the Thomases,
honest, hardworking, pinched by poverty.
I am the sixth child of Tom and Mary Edith,
from the hammer, saw and nails of a carpenter,
from the wringer washer, rolling pin, and rake.

I am from beans, and more beans,
baked, fried, and mashed potatoes,
homemade biscuits, lard, and Kool-Aid.
I am from the Almighty Car, country music,
Vacation Bible School, Jesus Loves Me,

guitar playing and singing harmony.
I am from a maternal grandfather
who killed a man in self-defense.
I am bathed in April showers,
shoeless in summer’s heat,
shrouded in autumn leaves,
steady on snowy paths.

I am a first-generation
college graduate.
I live in suburbia,
visit deserts,
beaches
plains
forests
yet always home
in the mountains.

I am from
Virginia’s Blue Ridge.

PERSIMMON TREE

SHORT TAKES: PUTTING IT ALL AWAY

DOWNSIZING

PERSIMMON TREE

SHORT TAKES: WHAT I LIKE/WHAT I DISLIKE

WHAT I LIKE / WHAT I DISLIKE

Things | like: national parks, learning new things, snow that sticks to everything - trees, wires, and mailboxes, coconut almond fudge ice cream, singing harmony, autumn colors, stroking a sleeping dog's cheeks and ears, science fiction, helping people find their calling, buttered homemade biscuits with homegrown tomatoes, falling in love, being in love, being loved, loving people, college basketball, Mary Stewart novels, counted cross stitch, purring cats, concerts, photography, Crosby Stills Nash (sometimes Young), romantic novels, spy novels, mystery novels, wildlife, folk music, spring flowers, hugs, movies, movies, movies.

Things | dislike: petty people, the glass half empty, loud voices, pity parties, arrogance, setting alarm for p.m. instead of a.m. and vice versa, math, extreme heat, runny noses, dying young, people who ignore me when I'm talking, aggressive drivers, emotional neglect, technology that doesn't work, all abusers, extreme cold, people who think they are better than others, insincerity, insomnia, worthless meetings, jazz, things too complicated for me to figure out, screaming children, bird poop, racists, liars, cheaters, washing dishes by hand, poor acting, setting goals I never reach, mean people.

OLLI INK

OSHER LIFELONG LEARNING

INSTITUTE LITERARY MAGAZINE

AMERICAN BABY MAGAZINE

OSHER LIFELONG LEARNING

INSTITUTE LITERARY MAGAZINE

POETRY

BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM

INSTITUTE LITERARY MAGAZINE

VOL. 1

NOVA BARDS

AN ANTHOLOGY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA POETRY

LOCAL GEMS PRESS, NICK HALE, EDITOR, LONG ISLAND, NY

OLLI INK

OSHER LIFELONG LEARNING

INSTITUTE LITERARY MAGAZINE

THE POETS OF OLLI:

OSHER LIFELONG LEARNING

INSTITUTE ANTHOLOGY

CALLIOPE:

THE STUDENT JOURNAL OF ART AND LITERATURE

NORTHERN VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

publications

PROSE

Because He Loved Me:

Her Publications

PERSIMMON TREE – SHORT TAKES

Where I'm From

PERSIMMON TREE

PERSIMMON TREE

OLLI INK

OSHER LIFELONG LEARNING

AMERICAN BABY MAGAZINE

OSHER LIFELONG LEARNING

POETRY

BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM

VOL. 1

NOVA BARDS

OLLI INK

THE POETS OF OLLI:

CALLIOPE:

VOL. XVI

Location

Contact Us

Follow Us