Meet Polly Ingraham, the Pastor’s Wife

A quick search will bring up many blogs of pastors’ wives from various faiths and different parts of the country. My story is unusual in that I was almost a complete stranger to organized religion when I married my husband, who is now an Episcopal bishop, more than 30 years ago. A few decades later, I am still learning about the faith world, and there is a kind of amphibious secular-meets-sacred quality to my life: I dwell here and I also dwell there. My own work life has also had a double quality: almost equal parts classroom English teaching and managing job training/career development programs for adults and teenagers. Currently I work in a New Hampshire high school, trying to provide “extended learning opportunities” during a time of COVID. My experience in education has provided me with a particular sensitivity to the disturbing disparities that persist between different kinds of schools in this country. Through a local non-profit organization, I have also been honored to serve as a mentor to one girl for the past six years. Having grown up close to the natural world, I am always eager to learn whatever I can about science. As a little girl with four older brothers who played countless games outside, I imbibed a love for sports early and have maintained it through my adult years. My husband and I raised our children in two different, bustling college towns, moving to quieter New Hampshire almost eight years ago with our big dog, Rocky. Now 21, 26, and 28, our kids are young adults, forging their own paths. From 2017 to 2018, I was enrolled in the intensive “Memoir Incubator” program at Grub Street in Boston, where I completed the first draft of the book that I am currently hoping to launch in the world.