Shelli Wengart Dern

Shelli Wengart is a dynamic and optimistic individual with a passion for sports, friends, and creativity. She is deeply spiritual and values her family and community.

She married Nicholas Dern in 2003 at the age of 21, and enjoys bicycling, school activities, and writing for the school paper.  Shelli is known for her optimistic exuberance, active imagination, unique sense of style, and her love for making people laugh. She is also a bit insecure about her petite size.

Coming from a musical family, Shelli plays the violin and sings soprano at church. She is very passionate about her relationship with God and is always sincere and truthful in her prayers.  Her “Fruit of the Spirit” are Love, Joy, Kindness, Goodness, and Gentleness.

Shelli is everybody’s friend and goes out of her way to comfort and encourage. Her adventurous spirit often led her to explore the world around her, always with a notebook in hand to jot down thoughts, stories, and observations. Weekends were filled with hiking trips, visits to local art galleries, and spontaneous road trips to nearby scenic spots. Despite her boundless energy, Shelli cherished quiet moments as well, often finding solace in a good book or while writing in her journal.

Her friends and family admired her ability to balance her zest for life with a deep sense of empathy and understanding. Shelli's home was a sanctuary where laughter echoed through the halls, and her infectious positivity uplifted everyone around her.

My thoughts about Shelli's life, and I how I came about writing this novel, this concept:

I love Hallmark movies, especially the one that made me start thinking about how to write Shelli’s story: “Five Minutes More”. (Check it out on Amazon Prime Streaming Videos!) See the Dream State “Hook” story for details on the Synopsis page.

I wondered if Shelli’s dreams affected her own life... perhaps she realized that she needed to be grateful for and not take for granted the wonderful life she had. Would she seek out others who were going through the same troubles as Dorothy Grantham, the dream girl? She had a growing desire to learn as much as she could about what she observed in that other dream world. It deepened her appreciation of her parents, her ancestors, all those who went before her that established their home in Montana.

Just as Shelli wrote out her dreams in her journals, so I write out my thoughts about her as they come to me. I need to visualize, and experience the personalities, dreams, goals, fears, loves, physicality, emotions, spiritual depth, work ethic, self-concept, and so many other aspects of each of my “people”, or characters. Yes, when I think of them as people, they become real to me, and so they will become real to my readers. They will become my new memories to crowd out the old painful memories which will become Shelli’s dreams. The beginning dreams should be light, innocent, and brief. As Shelli grows older, her dreams get darker, longer, and more complicated.

Here is an excerpt from one of Shelli’s journals:

I love my life. There has always been such peace and contentment in my family, and as I look around, I see Mom and Dad surrounded by their children, Josie, Ryan, me, Marc, and Dillan. Herschel and Margana Wengart have loved and cherished each other since they met at a construction site and brought that caring spirit to everyone they met. But their near perfect life was overshadowed by the recurring dreams I kept having about a girl I never knew.

I remember when I was in 4th grade at Niel Winthur Elementary School in Winthur's Gardens, MT, we lived in a town the perfect size for our family and all our dear neighbors and friends. There were so many attractions and activities for everyone, and many opportunities for learning, leisure, and laughter. Well, when I was about 10 years old, after an exciting and fun Christmas dinner in our home, with so many activities like tree trimming, cookie baking, gingerbread house making, and wrapping presents, that I fell into bed looking forward to peaceful dreams... as I slowly faded into the soft quiet arms of sleep, I was carried off to a different kind of place that seemed to unsettle me. I was on some country lane in an earlier time, and I could taste the fragrance of jasmine, lilac, and honeysuckle, view the vivid colors of the green hills, a garden of multi colored flowers and plants, hear the neighborhood come alive with dogs barking, woodpeckers pecking on some hardwood tree, and touch the softness of green grass as I lay down in it to look up at the blue sky... I remember thinking to myself, this is a pretty awesome dream. I'd like to come back here in another dream sometime.

Shelli Wengart was the middle child of five kids, and perhaps the most inspiring of them all. She had a curiosity about the why of it all and just had to research all she could about things that interested her. She was a keen observer of the human condition, with empathy for people's problems, and imagining solutions to give them relief from whatever was troubling them. Her parents set the example for her and her siblings regarding putting others first before themselves. It could truly be said that it was more blessed to give, because their whole family lived out that Scripture, and it they were sought out for family, neighborhood, and church gatherings. At every holiday, birthday, anniversary, graduation, wedding, and even funerals, everyone could be found around the Wengart family whether in their home, at church, or at a 4th of July picnic with fireworks. This multi-cultural community celebrated, mourned, grew, encouraged, and loved each other at all times. What a blessing it was to live in Winthur’s Gardens!