Whether it be from the coast of Florida, the hills of Kentucky or the mountains of Colorado, Jean Brody has been sharing her views on life, love and the pursuit of happiness with the world for than 30 years.

Jean began contributing her weekly “The View From The Hills” column to The Winchester Sun in 1990 after she moved to Clark County with her husband, Gene.

“We moved to Winchester from Florida in 1990,” Jean said from her cozy assisted living apartment in Littleton, Colorado, with photos of her family and friends covering the walls behind her. “I had been writing for the Miami Herald and the newspaper in Key Biscayne.”

When she arrived in Winchester, Jean decided to pitch her columns to then-Sun editor Bill Blakeman.

“I walked into his office and asked if he thought he might carry my column,” she said. “At the time he said no and that he didn’t think they had the room. He called me back a little later and said they would try it.”

Try it she did, and almost three decades later, Jean has contributed nearly 1,500 columns about everything from spirituality to relationships, animal welfare, connections with nature, motherhood and everything in between, delighting readers with humor and heartfelt observations of the world around her.

Jean said her passion for writing stems back to her childhood, one that was plagued by illness.

“Writing is who I am,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t write. I need to get it all out on paper. When I was three years old, I was diagnosed with Rheumatic fever. It messed up my life in a way.”

Jean said she was limited by the disease as a child. She couldn’t play sports or be as physically active as others her age. But she could write.

“My mother would bring me paper and a pen and I would write,” she said. “At just three years old, I would write. And I realized then what I was meant to do.”

Her foray into published works began when she was 19 years old.

“I wrote something deeply personal at the time and sent it to a publisher — the nerve of me,” she said with a laugh, her cats P and Bella fumbling around at her feet and lap. “If he hadn’t bought it, I don’t think I would be writing today. I would have taken it too personally. I was young and stupid, and I would have stopped there.”

The publisher did end up buying Jean’s story, one about the sea and how she connected with it on a deep level. The sea was something she was familiar with as a child growing up on St. Simons Island, Georgia.

She eventually moved with her family because of her father’s job.

She would go on to be a teacher in St. Louis and then in Kentucky, teaching everything from preschool to fifth grade, middle and senior high school and adult creative writing. These days she even teaches a writing and discussion class at her assisted living facility.

While it was illness that inspired Jean to write, it was also what brought her to Kentucky.

“I always wanted to live on a farm,” she said. “When I got sick with a degenerative disease, my husband, Gene, asked me if there was anything I wanted to do. I told him I wanted to live on a farm and have lots of animals.”

Gene’s response? “Let’s go buy one!”

As she faced a degenerative spine disease, her new home on a farm in the hills of Kentucky gave her something to look forward to.

“It was a brand new experience,” she said. “But God bless Gene, it gave me a reason to get better.”

Jean said Winchester felt like home from the very start. She made lifelong friends, including the late Betty Smith who also wrote beloved columns for The Sun for many years.

“We were just supposed to be there,” she said.

When Gene was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, the couple moved to Littleton, to be closer to her children. They moved to Brookdale Littleton, an assisted living community in the suburbs of Denver.

“I needed help with Gene,” she said. “He was getting very sick. My family, they were just angels.”

Even with the move from the hills to the mountains, Jean remained dedicated to her weekly column, changing it to “The View From The Mountains,” which still runs in The Sun weekly.

In her 80s, Jean’s ability to continue writing is thanks in large part to her son-in-law, Steve.

After several bouts with pneumonia and worsening macular degeneration, Jean began to have difficulty seeing her computer or even a pen and paper.

She confided in Steve and her daughter, Phoebe, that she may need to put the proverbial cap on her pen and stop writing.

Steve refused to let that happen. For two and half years, Steve and Jean have been meeting each Wednesday for dinner, fellowship and writing.

Jean dictates her columns to Steve, who types them, edits as needed and then sends them to be published in The Sun.

“I’ve always believed in her writing,” Steve said. “She’s the master of the short-short story. Writing brings so much meaning and purpose to her life. I would hate to see that end. As a writer myself, I’ve been able to glean a lot from Jean about the importance of details in writing.”

While writing has brought purpose to Jean’s life, she also aims to help others with her stories and memories. She prides herself on her honesty in her writing.

“If you’re honest about it all — no matter how bad or good — the readers will respond,” she said.

She said her favorite column is one she wrote recently about holding her first great-grandchild, Holden, for the first time. But the ones that receive the most response are the ones that others can relate to.

“The ones I like the best are when I throw caution to the wind and say what I feel,” she said. “And hope others also feel what I feel.”

Her goal is to make others feel like they are not alone in the world, no matter what they’re facing.

“I believe I am fulfilling my purpose,” Jean said. “When I think about having to quit, I get a knot in my stomach. I’ve been sharing my stories with three generations of readers now. I feel blessed that I have a way to fulfill my purpose.” §