Like her mother before her, Florence Hedlund had a powerful faith in the Almighty throughout her 82 years of life, and her family was the most important undertaking in her life. After a happy childhood in Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century she followed her older sister to Kalamazoo and at the age of 15 began working as a telephone operator for the Michigan State Telephone Company. At the age of 30 she had lost her husband after 13 years of marriage with four little children and faced great economic disaster with hard work and true determination. By the age of 34 Florence had remarried, later moving to the southwest suburbs of Chicago in April of 1937. She had her last child at the age of 37 and years later would help in raising her first grandchild while her eldest son was away in the military. During World War II she gave blood for the various war blood drives. After raising her children she went back to work for Sears Roebuck and Company and by 1953 worked for the North American Car Corporation and finally retired in 1969 at the age of 66. Written in the early sixties, and published in 1963, Elizabeth Gouge's "The Scent of Water," was Florence Hedlund's favorite novel. It is a novel of discovery and a sense of renewal throughout its pages, as well as hope founded on the past and a belief that we can bring what is of value back to bloom in the future. The main character in the novel was Mary Lindsay who found renewal in her new home, and in a new faith, she found meaning and purpose. Perhaps Florence Hedlund identified with Mary Lindsay as she journeyed throughout her own life. This then is the story of the truly remarkable life and times of Florence Agnes Buist (Tracy) Hedlund.