Hello everyone. Thanksgiving is
coming and I am not ready for it. You see we have a tradition of telling
one thing we are thankful for that day. It will be hard for me this year.
My MS has not gone into remission and I am at last obligated to use a wheelchair.
Still I believe I have enough sense to know when I am happy, and be content
with that.
It is times like now, when I think
of contentment, I think of Bonnie gene Meagan. She was a very pretty girl
when she was young and all the boys were around her like bees to honey.
She eventually got engaged to Harry O'brian. But she was not content with
settling down to marriage and kids in this quiet valley. She craved the
big lights of the big cites and lots of money to make her happy. So it
was not surprising when a flim flam man came to town. He saw Bonnie gene
and when he left he left with quite a few foolish farmers money and Bonnie
gene.
We heard tell of her in a few other
towns where her new partner cleaned out the locals seed money and a left
before the tar and feathers were got. Then the two dropped out of sight.
We didn't hear from her until the Halloween ball the year the storm winds
came from the North and brought snow and white death to the land.
It all started out like a pleasant
evening. I was a young mother and my two girls were being taken around
trick or treating before coming to the ball. I felt safe letting my girls
go with the five other girls of their scout troop. I trusted Mrs. Shepherd
as their leader and felt them safe. We barely noticed the small flakes
when we came in. But soon the winds were making the building moan. When
I looked out, my heart froze. There was at least two feet of snow already
down and snowing so hard you could not see the street.
I began to worry about my girls
along with the other mothers whose girls were out with Mrs. Shepherd. The
men as usual tried to reassure us they were safe but that would only happen
when I held my babies in my arms again.
Three hours later with the snow
now over four feet high Mrs. Shepherd came into the room with two of the
girls. She told us her truck had slid off the road and the girls had got
separated coming here.
My girls were still lost in the
storm and it was getting very cold. Four feet of snow was over my Elizabeth's
head. I bit my hand until blood came out or I would have surely began to
scream. The men began to get ready to go out into the storm. The problem
was we had no idea where the girls were now and you could not see your
hand a foot from your face.
The five girls were not making much
progress against the snow when they saw a pair of lights coming down the
road. The powerful car's head lights struck the struggling girls in the
gully and stopped. A woman got out and struggled with the snow to reach
the girls and help them to the car. All were cold and wet by that time.
It had been an hour since the men
had to turn back from the storm, when the expensive car pulled up into
the driveway of the building. Out stepped a woman and five girls, two were
mine.
It was a while, filled with hugs
and kisses, before I recognized the smartly dressed woman as Bonnie gene.
She had on a white outfit and looked like the snow queen. Harry was there
and he could not believe it was Bonnie gene. They held each other like
all the years had never happened. Harry had never married and had never
lost his love for Bonnie gene.
But the spell was broken, as a spasm
broke over Bonnie gene. Small drops of blood stained her white outfit and
her lips. The doctor was called and gave Bonnie gene an injection which
calmed her as he pronounced her illness as tuberculosis. She was very far
advanced and had little hope. So she had come home at last.
That year our valley had a lot to
be thankful for. The girls were safe. We had survived a dreadful storm
with no deaths and we had one who was lost to us come home. But I think
the one who was most grateful then was Bonnie gene herself.
Harry and Bonnie gene did marry
that December. She was the happiest bride I had ever known. I owed her
so much; she had saved my daughters. She was loved by all in the valley
now. Six months later she was dead.
Bonnie gene had looked for happiness
all her life only to find it, at the last minute, where she began. God
will judge Bonnie gene in the end. But we have forgiven her and asked God
to accept her in glory. Because it does not matter what life you had led,
tomorrow can come and everything is different. If only you can have a little
faith.
No one is so lost that our Creator
cannot find us. As for me, I am content to live next to my mountain, with
my family and a God who loves me.
Love Sissy
 |  |