Living and traveling all over the world is an exciting life, but then there is a time to settle down. Margaret and Joel Best chose their Villages home in Bonnybrook in 2009. Margaret—she prefers “Peggy”—has been involved in many organizations and writing books ever since.
Peggy’s father was a U.S. Army major who was posted worldwide during his career. “Early on when he went overseas, my brother Michael and I would stay with Grandma Purdy in Peekskill, New York. She was very special to me and wrote notes and letters to each other.”
Writing came naturally to the family. Peggy’s father, a POW in Italy during World War II, eventually wrote his story of those times which became part of Peggy’s first book.
Graduating from high school in Germany, Peggy went on to do undergraduate at Northwestern State College in Louisiana and received her Masters at Nova University in Florida.
“After marrying Joel, we lived in 18 different places in 18 years with the military and corporations he worked for,” she recalls. Along the way the couple had three children and Peggy taught elementary school. “I like to see the look in the eyes of the children that get it. Maybe they don’t understand division, but if I go through all the different ways of showing them division, all of a sudden, their eyes go, ‘Oh, now I understand.’ And that’s what I like to see.”
Her favorite students were second graders. “They are still young enough to believe in fairies! I used to go around the classroom and sprinkle fairy dust around them, and they thought that was fantastic. I enjoyed teaching and I think teachers are super people. We don’t pay them enough and we don’t give them enough encouragement.”
Though they lived in may places, Peggy has a special spot in her heart for Guam.
“It is the most wonderful place in the world. You can go around the island in two hours, and it’s all jungle, but it’s fabulous. The people are great.” For the past several years she has been compiling a travel book on the island complete with photos and places to visit. She expects to publish it as an ebook next year.
“There’s a special thing at sunset on Guam. Sometimes, for a split second, as the sun descends into the water, there is a green flash. I’ve seen it several times, but I’ve never been able to take a photo because it happens so fast.”
Peggy’s first book, Unsung Hero, a legacy of writings from her father about his days as a POW in Italy, also contains a second part in which Peggy describes the ancestry of the Greene family and their military and teaching contributions to America over several different wars from the late 1800s to Vietnam.
In 2018 Peggy published Dandelion Child chronicling her time as an army brat during the Cold War era. “Children of career military officers were often called dandelion children because they followed their parents and never knew where the breezes would take them next—much like dandelion fluff drifting on the wind. “The dandelion is the ‘official’ flower of the military child,” she says. A special section in the book describes how readers can help military children. Dandelion Child won a Silver Award in the Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Awards in 2019.
Both books are available on Amazon.
When not writing Peggy is active with the Writers League of The Villages, the DAR, Beta Sigma Phi sorority, and the Lutheran church, among other organizations. Before COVID-19 she was an avid volunteer at schools, and assisted Villagers with memoir writing
Peggy’s latest project, a family Christmas book, came about through a strange set of circumstances—prompted by the COVID-19 lockdown, surgeries, and uncertainty about the future.
First, a real estate agent knocked on her door and they talked. He had beaten his depression by writing a devotional book. She wondered if a similar activity would help her get over depression from recent neurosurgery and living with multiple sclerosis.
“Our church was closed. So instead of going to church, I decided to read the Bible every day. I’m a writer, so I’d write something every day about what I just read. This went on for several months. Then I thought—why don’t I read and write about Christmas.”
She started exchanging emails with several local pastors, telling them about her project. They were not only supportive, they read drafts and suggested changes to ensure liturgical accuracy.
The result is a 32-page full color “family Christmas activity book” Peggy titled “The Reason for the Season.” It contains the complete Christmas story written as a series of essays, questions, devotionals, Bible quotations and prayers. There are also seasonal recipes, family crafts, cross word puzzle, and coloring pages. There are sections on Angels, the history of Christmas trees, Christmas presents and music.
“My objective is to have a book that the whole family can enjoy and have fun with while learning about the real reason for the season,” she says.
One of her objectives is to share the book and make it available for churches, missions and organizations to use as a fund raiser, as well as generating retail sales through Amazon and Christian bookstores.
Her next project is a family activity book on Easter.
While COVID-19 has been a downer, Peggy believes that life in The Villages has helped keep her own life positive, despite the challenges. “The Villages is a place for people who aren’t ready to give up yet,” she believes. Visit Peggy’s website at MargaretBestAuthor.com
John W Prince is a writer and Villager. For more information visit www.HallardPress.com. If you know of someone with a “Good Story and a Good Book,” contact him at John@HallardPress.com.
