Thank you for the nice article on our family. You (Stephanie Dunn) did a very good job on it. I appreciate the fact you thought our story worthy of your magazine. The magazine is a great asset to Shelby County. Hope you continue your good work. Betty Hudson Shelbyville

It may be Casper or a made-for-TV apparition, but whatever entity has taken up residence with the R.H. and Leslie Bennett family is a welcome addition. There are no strange sounds at night or captivating white noise on the television set; this ghost does good deeds.

Leslie McCarthy's successful fabric shop got its start 17 years ago when, of all things, the bottom dropped out of the hog market. McCarthy and Jeff, her husband of 30 years, raised hogs, and after that catastrophic end to their farming career, they "had to find something else to do," she said.

For Donna Meador, choosing to live and work in a small community was a quality-of-life decision. She could be earning more and working less at a metropolitan hospital, but the vice president of Clinical Services at Jewish Hospital Shelbyville is happy that her commute to work is five minutes long and that she can still be a nurse whenever she wants.

Fred was a most unwelcome guest. He let his presence be known a few weeks ago during the wee hours. Nothing can quite compare to being startled at 3 a.m. by your son, standing in your bedroom and announcing that there is a rat loose in his room. Those words were much more effective at waking a person than any alarm clock ever manufactured.