A gem collector

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This is Mary Collins. She owns two jewelry and rock shops in Leelanau County called Nature's Gems featuring Petosky Stones, which are fossilized coral from the Devonian Period when the Great Lakes were tropical.
We talked for quite a while and she told me about her childhood in Maryland, how she and her husband came to Northern Michigan to minister to the Caribbean migrant workers who came to work the resorts and fruit farms and how she was so glad to leave Florida, where her husband had long been a pastor and we talked about the state of relations between the races- where we've been and where we are, and when we parted she insisted on a hug and said that all mothers are connected heart to heart.  

Her husband, Marshall died one year ago on July 19th. Six of their eight children still live in the area and all 4 boys are involved in the family business. I will be thinking of her on the 19th. 

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