When Grove City resident Eva Dimel hears of something that has happened to a friend or even a tragedy that has befallen someone she doesn’t know, the first thing she does is offer a prayer.
Meanwhile, other words are tumbling around in her mind. Words that will spill out of her pen onto paper, and later into her computer. Words that form a poem of inspiration.
The poems keep coming. Some 75 of them have been incorporated into her second book, "Showers of Blessings."
And she’s finding her talent for that style of poetry has turned into invitations to be an inspirational speaker.
She’s scheduled for two public appearances this month. Dimel is the featured inspirational speaker for the first Women’s Wellness Day at the Mount Sterling Community Center on Saturday, Jan. 12. Then she’ll share her poems at a "Meet the Author and Dessert" program at the E.L. Evans Senior Center in Grove City on Tuesday, Jan. 15, from 2:30 to 4 p.m.
"I’m surprised," she said of the invitation to speak at the Wellness Day program. And a little scared, she’ll admit.
It’s a different step for Dimel, who grew up on the Westside of Columbus, married, raised three children and now works in food service with South-Western City Schools.
After her first book, "Hope in the Storms," came out, she received letters of appreciation from people who purchased the book. Similar letters are coming in as this new book reaches readers.
Many of the poems were written with a specific person in mind. Like "Colby’s Prayer," written for a local woman whose cousin’s toddler was struggling with cancer at the brain stem. The poem was sent to that family in Florida, and the local woman was then asked to read it at the child’s funeral a short time later.
And there’s "My Grandma." That’s for a special person.
"My sister is raising her grandchildren," she said. "The nine-year-old granddaughter came to me and asked ‘Will you write something for my grandma?’"
Dimel complied with a 12-line poem.
It’s hard not to get a little misty-eyed reading her work. Take "Letter from Heaven," for example.
"A friend lost her only child in a car wreck," she said of the poem she wrote when the accident occurred several years ago. "I didn’t want to publish it, but I would send it anonymously to someone who had lost a child. I thought it would bring comfort to them."
When this book was being put together by a printer in Mount Sterling, "Letter from Heaven" was one poem that the printer suggested be included.
Dimel loosened her tight hold of the poem, and it can be found in this edition.
While most of the poems are written with a specific person in mind, Dimel has included at least one for herself.
"I turned 50 this year," she admitted. "I got depressed. But then I was depressed when I turned 40, and when I turned 30."
Perhaps the offering "Frustrations" can ease that feeling.
It’s not unusual to find Dimel reading her own work. Even though she read the book seven times while proofing it before it was printed, she still goes back to it and her other poems, too.
Dimmel offered that she had help with the proofing because she is blind in her right eye, the result of surgery to remove abrain tumor years ago.
This book can easily be spotted in bookracks, with an angel on the light purple cover.
"It just had to be purple," Dimel said, reluctant to say that is her favorite color. "Christ wore a purple robe," she added as a reflection of her strong faith.
Her books can be found at Family Traditions in Grove City, Ann and Tony’s in West Jefferson, and Eternity Books and Gifts at the Church of the Nazarene in Grove City.
She’s quick to point out she’s not publishing her poems "for fame or fortune," as she wrote on the inside cover of this book. Rather "to uplift and encourage everyone that reads them (that) I am a firm believer in my Christian faith, and I feel certain that my writings are inspired by God. I feel truly blessed to be able to share them with others."
