At the age of 18 Laura was working as a schoolteacher, and during that time she met a young homesteader called Almanzo Wilder, and they fell in love and married. Her early years of marriage were difficult.. Almanzo (she called him Manly) was hard working but farming was not an easy way to make a living. Laura had her first child Rose at 19. A little later a son was born who died within a few days. Like her birth family, the Wilders also moved round a lot before settling.. They had bad luck with a barn fire which destroyed their harvested crop. Their baby son died and there were no more children. The Wilders got diphtheria and Manly had a stroke, which left him very ill for a time. He limped for the rest of his life and was not a strong man, but he and Laura (whom he called Bess because he had a sister called Laura) managed their farm and achieved some years of stability. However it was many years of hardship and poverty. In middle age, Laura became a writer for the first time, starting to write about farm life and advice about farming. She was an expert on poultry and she gave talks to other rural women. She then began to write the stories of her childhood, moving around the prairies, which made her famous....
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