By By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles & Features Editor
Jean Coleman is a woman of many talents, one of which will be showcased this weekend.
Coleman will be the featured guest Saturday during an event celebrating the publication of her first book, “I Met Him in my Overalls.” The book signing runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Everyday Creations, located at 144 W. Main St. in Washington.
“I have no training. I still find myself saying I’m not a writer,” Coleman said during an interview.
Coleman’s vocation is nursing. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, were she earned her degree. She worked for a while, including a stint in Utah while her husband, Barr, did surgery training for five years.
“We were high-school sweethearts, and we’ve been married for 1,000 years, at least,” she said with a laugh.
The couple moved to Washington in 1978, settling in a home on West Main Street. In 1998, they relocated to a farm off Market Street Extension.
A free-lance decorating consultant, Coleman was able to expand her creativity by growing and selling fresh-cut flowers at the farm. That’s also where the passion for putting down her thoughts on paper took root.
“I was truly called to write this book,” Coleman said. “It began with my first grandchild, a little boy. I was at my daughter’s house helping her and he was fretful and crying in the middle of the night. I was exhausted and I said, ‘Lord, what can I do for this child?’ As clear as if He had actually spoken to me, He gave me the answer.”
The next morning, Coleman told her daughter she was going to write a book. She didn’t intend it for publication; rather, it was something she could leave behind for her children and grandchildren.
At the time, Coleman was growing flowers on a two-acre plot, and as she worked in her garden she noticed similarities between growing plants and life in general.
“Every step of the way there was a spiritual parallel,” she recalled. “I had never been on a tractor, but I got a tractor for my anniversary, and one day I was plowing a field. I stopped and looked around and thought our hearts have to be plowed. You have to be hurt to thrive.”
There were parallels everywhere she looked.
“I’d spend endless hours weeding in the flowers,” she said. “I’d come in dirty and tired, but I felt good. The weeds were like disturbances in my life, crowding out the real Jean. You have to cut off that which is dead or disturbing your life.”
Coleman saw that letting God take charge of one’s life was the answer.
“If you let God, he’ll make you a part of something wonderful,” she said. “If we let go of trying so hard, He will carry us to where we’re supposed to be.”
Putting those lessons down in book form was Coleman’s way of sharing them with others.
“Instead of passing on a ring, I wanted to pass on the gifts that you gather from God Almighty,” she said. “This was going to be my legacy.”
Staying busy with her flower business left Coleman little, if any, time to write. Then, following a horseback-riding accident, she found herself bedridden with plenty of time on her hands.
“Good came out of that because I couldn’t do anything else, so I started writing,” she said.
The project took on a life of its own.
“I had planned to publish just 50 copies for family and friends, but my daughter convinced me to send it to a publisher,” Coleman said. “I signed a contract last January, and it was published in December.”
Coleman is still a bit hesitant when it comes to the attention she’s garnering as a published writer, but she believes in the book.
“I want it out there, not for the fame but because I felt called to write it,” she said. “I want to share the beauty, the love that’s in it.”