Journey out of Lodebar: Testimony of a Prisoner's Wife is based on the true-life story of Robert and Glenda Simmons, a couple residing on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Almost nearing retirement, Robert was implicated in a bribery scheme with the commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and was sentenced to prison at sixty-one years of age. This unexpected legal trouble occurring so late in life for the couple found Glenda regrettably unprepared emotionally and financially. She was completely falling apart. Glenda was at a place in her life in which she knew that the only way she would survive this upheaval in her happy, comfortable home and lifestyle was with God's help and strength.
So Glenda went into survival mode, and throughout this book, she tells us about her plight, her innermost thoughts, disappointments and victories, and how she found strength through prayer, Bible verses, and gospel songs. In the process of developing a closer relationship with God, Glenda was inspired to write this book to celebrate the goodness of God in her life.
We also learn that life had not always been peaches and cream for the happy couple. There had been a terrible storm in their marriage over twenty-five years prior to their prison predicament, and Glenda had not fully recovered from that storm. The book has a surprise ending because God is always full of surprises!