{"id":19422,"date":"2026-05-21T21:30:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=19422"},"modified":"2026-05-21T21:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:30:28","slug":"a-soldiers-wife-my-mother-the-marvelous-mrs-marilyn-a-underwood-by-blair-underwood-with-ylonda-gault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/a-soldiers-wife-my-mother-the-marvelous-mrs-marilyn-a-underwood-by-blair-underwood-with-ylonda-gault\/","title":{"rendered":"A Soldier\u2019s Wife: My Mother, the Marvelous Mrs. Marilyn A. Underwood by Blair Underwood with Ylonda Gault"},"content":{"rendered":"

c.2026, Amistad\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/strong>
\n$28.00\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/strong>
\n208 pages<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Terri Schlichenmeyer<\/strong>
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m telling Mom!<\/p>\n

When you were small, those words were often enough to send a chill down your spine. One quick tattle to the woman who bore you, and you were in trouble. That simple phrase always kept you in line, at least until you were grown. By then, as in the new book, A Soldier\u2019s Wife<\/em> by Blair Underwood with Ylonda Gault,<\/strong> Mom had something to tell you.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marilyn Underwood had kept every scrap of paper that ever passed through her fingers.<\/p>\n

That, says her son, author and actor Blair Underwood, is how it seemed. After her death from multiple sclerosis nearly six years ago, Mrs. Underwood\u2019s children found piles and piles of notes, notebooks, lists, random thoughts and memories she\u2019d written down. Paper was everywhere.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d said many times that she was \u201cputting together a memoir of sorts,\u201d and after looking over what she\u2019d left, Underwood thought the collection would make a good children\u2019s book. He was later convinced that his mother\u2019s story was bigger than that.<\/p>\n

Marilyn Ann Scales Underwood was an only child and was raised to be independent. Born and reared in Buffalo, New York, she attended an all-girls school with a big dream to work in the fashion industry. She indicated that her mother was brave to let her go, but Underwood knew that her career was really in New York City. She was right; she thrived there.<\/p>\n

Laser-focused on her work, Underwood was in no hurry to do as most late-1950s women did and get married; though friends urged her to date, it was not a priority until she met the love of her life, Frank. She loved him instantly. They were engaged three weeks after meeting and married three months later.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing about me,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWhen I set my mind on something, you can believe it\u2019s as good as done.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are really two ways to look at A Soldier\u2019s Wife<\/em>.<\/p>\n

On one side, it feels almost random. Marilyn Underwood was a strong, independent woman, an inspiration to those who knew her \u2013 but most of us didn\u2019t. While the writings author Blair Underwood compiles here are wise and funny, they\u2019re not earth-shattering and there may be times when they won\u2019t hold your interest.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019re exactly what you need, exactly when you need them.<\/p>\n

Reading this book is like getting a letter from your grandma. The essays here are warm, with\u00a0 reminders to pray to a purposeful Higher Power, that life\u2019s a struggle but it\u2019s worth living, and that suffering happens. There\u2019s love in this book \u2013 lots of it! – gratitude, gentleness, and old-fashioned values. It\u2019s sweetly quaint, but firm. And yes, it\u2019s random, but consider it as a hug from somebody\u2019s mom when you\u2019re down, because that\u2019s rather what it is.<\/p>\n

Just remember that no book has to be read cover-to-cover. You can skip around, and you\u2019ll be fine with this one, whenever you need its comfort. A Soldier\u2019s Wife<\/em> could be meaningful or meaningless to you at various times, only you can tell.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

c.2026, Amistad\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 $28.00\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 208 pages By Terri Schlichenmeyer The Truth Contributor   I\u2019m telling Mom! When you were small, those words were often enough to send a chill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[20],"class_list":["post-19422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19424,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19422\/revisions\/19424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19422"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=19422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}