Chinese Lanterns

"She claimed her spot on the transplanter and laughed and bounced across the fields, an eighty­-year-old Big Bird figure with hefty boobs and a potty mouth…" She was everyone's favorite. Get to know Ohio's most spirited firecracker, Leona "Loany" Rice, who splits her time on earth sampling life on both sides of the law. Her niece gives us an inside look at a notorious bookie and numbers racketeer, talk of the town, fireworks distributor, "Granny" to the mentally disabled, farmhand, loving mother-a perpetual "fart in a twister" who never seems to stand still. Even after a family tragedy threatens to destroy her, she finds a way to persevere. Loany lived as we all wish to, with abandon, humor, and just the right amount of sass; and she did it all with the love of her life by her side. Her legacy was to teach all who knew her a lesson: you only live once-and by God, once is enough if you give it all you've got. Margie Hiermer's love of adventure comes from country bike rides to Goldhardt's Grocery as a child to visit Aunt "Loany", a woman more grandmother than grand-aunt. Hiermer brings her passion for engaging with others to her writing and winds down by poking around farm fields in search of treasure.