A Wild Olive Shoot

Spanning a fascinating life of “little-house-on-the-prairie” dirt-poor beginnings in rural Minnesota to corporate marketing and advertising careers in Manhattan and Italy, this honest memoir traces the author’s journey back to the Author of Faith.


Despite being raised in a devout Christian home and having given her heart to Jesus at church camp at nine years old, Marilyn left that Truth to follow the dead-end paths of New Age religion. For decades she worshipped the counterfeit gods of career with immodest self-regard. Devoting the best hours of the day to her career without a thought of God, she bluntly confesses the emptiness of failed marriages, utter loneliness, and the grim recognition of a life filled with sins large and small. And her very real need for Truth. 


With poignant excerpts from a diary kept for over 40 years which tells of her pain and intermittent joy, Marilyn’s story of her renewed relationship with Jesus, the ultimate truth detector, will inspire others who seek to find greater meaning and daily joy in their own lives knowing the Son of Man from Galilee.


“You, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others 

and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.” (Romans 11:17)