Learn how local began a writing career post-retirement

by

Do you believe in luck? If not just a mix of hard work and risk taking, then what is it? Rosemary Barkes worked hard her entire life and, coincidentally, has experienced a great deal of so-called luck.

From Mount Gilead to Grove City

Barkes grew up in Mount Gilead where her family instilled this serious work ethic in her at a young age. She worked as a babysitter and delivered papers, which was a job her beloved grandmother, Ruth, had secured her.

“As soon as I graduated from Mount Gilead High School, my girlfriend and I came right down to Columbus, I mean like right down,” says Barkes. “And I never looked back.”

The two started as secretaries for an insurance company. This was the first of many jobs that Barkes would hold in her years as an undergraduate studying radio and TV communications at The Ohio State University.

She worked as a typist in the mornings and waited tables at the Faculty Club at night, modeling on the weekends for a photography studio downtown. Barkes graduated and married Gordon Bradley Hummel in 1960; the two had met on a blind date arranged by friends. They had their first child, Julie Annette Hummel, three years later, while in Columbus.

Though Barkes’ marriage ended in 1969, she and Hummel remain friends to this day. As a single mother and lifelong learner, she returned to OSU to get another bachelor’s degree, this time in speech and hearing therapy. After obtaining her second degree in 1974, Barkes worked in Columbus Public Schools as a speech and hearing therapist.

She met her second husband, Edwin Noble Goodman, and they married in 1975. They bought a house in Grove City and, just two years later, Barkes had her son, Craig Robert Goodman.

They moved to Texas for Goodman’s job in 1981 but divorced three years later. She moved back to Grove City and began pursuing her master’s degree, during which time she met her late husband, John Curtis Barkes.

“I love Grove City because I can make a difference. I’m on the board of the Town Center and I was on the board of Friends of the Library and Keep Grove City Beautiful,” says Barkes.

Since retiring in 1998, Barkes joined a variety of other organizations like the Women’s Civic Club of Grove City, the Florence Grossman Cancer Ray, National League of American Pen Women and the Grove City Writers’ Group.

“I’m a hard worker, so when I join something I become an officer right away or else I might not come or sit in the back and talk,” says Barkes.

Undiscovered Talent

Imagine going your whole adult life without realizing that you have an incredible knack for something.

At age 64, Barkes had been living in Grove City for the better part of 30 years, married thrice, became a mother of two, obtained three degrees, and remained an active member of several social and philanthropic groups.

At age 64, Barkes also discovered that she was a writer. A soon-to-be-published writer.

Working as an executive assistant to the president of OhioHealth Doctors Hospital in her mid- to late-50s, Barkes received tuition reimbursement. In 2000, five years after graduating with her master’s in counseling from the University of Dayton, Barkes entered the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition as an alumna.

“I love Erma, I read all of her books because she gave women a hope and raised their homemaking image to a new level,” says Barkes. “And she’s funnier than heck!”

She wasn’t expecting anything to come from the submission, so was shocked to hear that she had beaten out 300 other applicants. This was the first in a series of personal victories, which Barkes credits to her willingness to take risks.

“(Taking a risk) is what I’ve done with my writing every time I’ve sent something in,” says Barkes “I started out light; I started out deliberately. I was a guest columnist in Mount Gilead, Ohio, sent something to Marion, Ohio, and into Columbus, and they were all published.”

Barkes went on to become published in nearly every outlet to which she submitted. Realizing that she had a talent for writing, she began keeping track of her experiences, specifically those spent caring for her mother with dementia.

Win a Signed Copy!

Visit cityscenecolumbus.com to submit your entry via the giveaways tab. A winner will be selected in late October.

The Dementia Dance

Barkes’ discovery that her mother, Lois, had dementia came, as it does to many, by surprise. Her father, Charles Osborn, had just passed away at age 91 and the family came together to mourn. When they arrived at her mother’s house, Lois wasn’t ready to go. She was in the other room, so Barkes yelled that they needed to leave soon for the funeral home.

“She came out and said, ‘Why? What are we going to the funeral home for?’” says Barkes. “I said, ‘Well, Dad died,’ and she said, ‘He did?’”

In that moment, Barkes didn’t know much about caring for a loved one with dementia, but she had been volunteering at an assisted living home for four years, was a natural caregiver with her children and felt that as the oldest sibling, it was her duty to take care of her mother now more than ever.

With a newfound love for writing about her first-hand experiences, Barkes began writing short stories that would be strung together into her-first ever book, The Dementia Dance: Maneuvering Through Dementia While Maintaining Your Sanity. She worked through self-editing for years before its eventual publication in 2013.  

Barkes published her book at the age of 77 and has no plans to slow down. Though she probably won’t pursue a doctorate degree in gerontology, her preferred field of study, she knows she has the potential to write another book.

“I have a couple books in my mind, but I don’t know if I’ll move forward with that or not,” says Barkes. “I particularly love to write short stories. I can lay in bed at night and write a short story, you know? I don’t write it, but I can in my mind because they just kind of hit me.”

Jenny Wise is an associate editor. Feedback welcome at jwise@cityscenemediagroup.com.