Rancho El Contento: the Life and Times of Dorothy Mcmanus

Dorothy McManus grew up in a country home near the small town of El Centro, California. Named Rancho El Contento, this home was a peaceful, idyllic setting that created in her a refuge she would carry with her for the rest of her life. Early on, Dorothy began asking important questions: Why am I here? What is my purpose? She spent a lifetime seeking the elusive answers. As she traveled throughout the world experiencing diverse cultures and religions, these travels became a metaphor for her unrelenting mental and spiritual journey. Dorothy thought she had the perfect life. Married for 59 years, she had three sons and an admired place in the community. She was an accomplished businesswoman, artist, sculptor, and novelist. Everywhere she went people were captured by her warmth, enthusiasm, generosity, guilelessness, and love. But Dorothy's life was also marked by tragedy in the midst of joyous times beginning with the loss of her youngest son, Roger, while he was serving in the Peace Corps in the Philippines. Still, no matter what happened, she proved through her life that her Rancho El Contento way of looking at the world could triumph in the end.