Alligators and Me: My Life in Alabama 1968

When her husband, Ned, is called to be a pastor in Mobile, Alabama, twenty-five-year-old Molly Milner is initially reluctant to uproot her life in Ohio. Once relocated, she is pleased to find a beautiful town and a welcoming community. But lurking beneath the veneer of Southern hospitality is something sinister-and dangerous.

Molly will soon discover that Alabama in the late 1960s is filled with "alligators"-people who might snap her up and drag her down into the murky depths if she steps out of line. As Ned is drawn into the civil rights movement, the young couple falls into a swamp of death threats, intimidation, and fear that will test their resilience-and their marriage.

Chronicling her life in Alabama leading up to 1968, and the accompanying upheavals of that pivotal year, Alligators and Me explores how mortal danger and spiritual calamity can change a person. Throughout, Molly discovers what it means to be the hero of her own story-an accidental activist formed in the turmoil of the civil rights movement.

Molly Milner grew up in Elyria, Ohio, and has paid her dues as a caring pastor's wife in three different Lutheran congregations over forty years. She spent her career in mentorship and education, working as a high school teacher, GED program administrator, adult high school diploma coordinator, and as principal of a K-12 independent study school for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Now retired, she loves to travel, paint, and spend time each week with her strong and resilient grandson. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Ned, and her rescue standard poodle, Magnolia. This is her first book.