Fragments of Our Life

Veronica Loraine Alvin Simpson was born in 1930 near Bear Creek, Wisconsin, during the height of the Great Depression. Raised on a farm on the ridge east of Richland Center, she learned early the values of hard work, faith, and devotion to family that would shape her entire life.

After graduating from Richland Center High School-where the yearbook caption beneath her senior photo read "Dark of hair, but not of disposition"-Veronica married Arthur LaVern Simpson on October 5, 1948. Their partnership would span more than fifty years, through sixteen years of farming, twenty-eight years operating Simpson's Auto Body in the village of Rockbridge, and raising four children: Artie, Danny, Kimmy, and Lynny.

Veronica served as her husband's partner in every endeavor-sander, spray painter, bookkeeper, and co-pilot through life's storms and celebrations. She was a devoted community member, serving as President of the Rockbridge PTA, Saint Mary's Altar Society, and the Catholic Order of Foresters, and was named "Mother of the Year" by her parish.

She wrote Fragments of Our Life during the four months following Art's death on December 22, 1999-not as a professional writer, but as a grieving wife determined to preserve, in her own words, the simple and precious story of a life well-lived and deeply loved.