“True Friends of the Heart,”continutes the adventures of the main characters in my first book, “The White Starched Apron.” Maggie, Red and Glenda Faye go their separate ways, but this book brings them back together once more. There are all new adventures, trials and tribulations to over come. There is love, sorrow and much happiness when, “The Fearsome Three Some, continue their lives during World War II, in Speedway City, Indiana.”
“True Friends of the Heart,”continutes the adventures of the main characters in my first book, “The White Starched Apron.” Maggie, Red and Glenda Faye go their separate ways, but this book brings them back together once more. There are all new adventures, trials and tribulations to over come. There is love, sorrow and much happiness when, “The Fearsome Three Some, continue their lives during World War II, in Speedway City, Indiana.”
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Overview
“True Friends of the Heart,”continutes the adventures of the main characters in my first book, “The White Starched Apron.” Maggie, Red and Glenda Faye go their separate ways, but this book brings them back together once more. There are all new adventures, trials and tribulations to over come. There is love, sorrow and much happiness when, “The Fearsome Three Some, continue their lives during World War II, in Speedway City, Indiana.”
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781450273893 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | iUniverse, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 12/09/2010 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 273 KB |
Read an Excerpt
True Friends of the Heart
By Saragene Stamm Adkins
iUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 Saragene Stamm AdkinsAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-7388-6
Chapter One
"Maggie will not let go!"
Maggie was sitting in her big soft chair in the living room, she was thinking about the heart-warming visit with her two best friends. Her friends were taking their afternoon nap. The three of them had been inseparable for their whole lives. Maggie's granddaughters had arranged a surprise visit for the three women, a few months after they had all celebrated their 90th birthdays.
Maggie knew this had not been an easy feat; the two women were frail and had to have a competent companion to accompany them on their flight. The girls had them picked up in a limousine that drove them to Maggie's house. Maggie's granddaughter's, Patti Cay and Lariann, kept in constant contact with their families by email every day they were here in Speedway City with Maggie.
After the shock of seeing her two friends, Sandra Kay, "Red, Murphy and Glenda Faye Kelly, things returned to normal in the old Mann residence. The women talked none stop about their young years, each one speaking of their wonderful husbands. They had to stop and remember the triple wedding that took place on a cold Christmas Eve afternoon in 1941. They had all changed their last names at the same time; even in marriage they could not be separated.
Clara Margaret, "Maggie, Mann, had married, Leo John Van Camp, nicknamed, "Ace." Sandra Kay, "Red," Murphy, had married, John Ryan after giving up her vows as a missionary nun in the South Pacific. Glenda Faye Kelly married Josh Wakefield. It sounds like something out of a fairytale, but this was not true, their young years were an up hill struggle in one way or the other. One thread that kept them together was the thread of life, love and friendship from one heart to the other.
Lariann and Patti Cay, cared for the three women with the tenderness they deserved, they had heard so many stories about these sister's of the heart. Now they finally got the privilege of meeting them in person. They cooked for them, when they would let them in the kitchen, but they always sat with them drinking tea in Maggie's mother's kitchen. They loved this kitchen where so many decisions concerning their lives had been discussed and solved. They never failed to insist on drinking their tea from the little china teacups with the hand painted violets and intertwining green stems and leaves.
The Great Aunts, Lena, Beana and Rose had made the whole tea service, hand painted with violets and stems with green leaves. Due to a disastrous cat accident, only two cups and saucers remained intact. These cups and saucers were over 100 years old. Now, with the addition of the cup and saucer Lariann and her late mother, Saragene, had found in an antique shop before she died, there was a set of three. Remembering Maggie's daughter's passing brought tears to her eyes. Her two best friends had been too ill to make the trip for Saragene's funeral service.
Red and Glenda Faye could lighten the mood and bring the subject back to the Great Aunts or something pleasant. They did not want Maggie dwelling on sad happenings, due to her age and physical problems. They remembered these special spinster sisters, they were milliners and wig makers. It was never a party, unless the Great Aunts were there, especially on New Years Eve. They looked so cute in their paper hats all in different colors, they loved to blow on the little paper whistles that would roll out and snap back.
Each night Lariann would help the three ladies prepare for bed, she was surprised when they insisted on sleeping together in Maggie's old iron bed. She knew the ticking of the old wooden clock on the other side of the wall would comfort them. As if they were young girls again, giggling themselves off to sleep. Who was Lariann to say where they could or could not sleep? The nights were still a little cold, so Lariann went to the closet and brought down one of her mother, Saragene's, big comfy blankets and placed it over the women.
Lariann stood for a moment looking at the three ladies, lying side-by-side, and holding hands. Their eyes were closing as she switched off the overhead light. She wondered what dreams would come to them, would they be of the old days? Lariann whispered, "Sweet Dreams, true friends of my heart."
Lariann went to her Grammie Maggie's spare room, undressed and cuddled under another of her mother, Saragene's, big comfy blankets. As she drifted off to sleep she tried to imagine the old frail women in the next room as young vibrant women. Lariann floated off to sleep, dreaming of the stories the ladies had related to her each day over the last week of their stay.
Chapter Two
"The Wedding Ceremony, Christmas Eve 1941"
The priest officiating at the triple wedding, at St. John's Church, had just pronounced the three couples husbands and wives. He said, "Gentlemen you may now kiss your brides." They kissed each other in a fashionable way, in front of all the guests in attendance. The girls dropped their husband's hands and stepped in front of them, they joined hands, raised their arms and said, "We Are, The Three Sister's of St. Ann's, True Friends of the Heart!"
The audience, who knew these remarkable young women, stood up and cheered and clapped till their hands hurt. It was so like the three of them to pull a stunt like this, their husbands looked at each other, they had no idea what they were in for!
The three couples marched down the aisle one after the other, the girls giggling and speaking in a manner that only they understood. The grooms once again just looked at one another, smiling, knowing all three had the only women they would ever need for the rest of their lives.
The immediate families of the three couples followed behind to be whisked off to the reception party. Everyone climbed into the waiting automobiles, the snow was starting to fall in huge flakes, the kind you can see a perfect design before it melts away. This was perfect, snow for Christmas. The bridal party was escorted together, in the same big black sedan, rented for the occasion. There was champagne and crystal for toasting a special occasion in a beautiful rosewood compartment built into the side of the sedan. It was so pretty that Maggie reached out to touch the velvet side panels and rub the soft material with her hand. "Look at this, do you believe three small girls that grew up in little Speedway City, are now riding in such luxury?" Red, being the jokester, said, "I cannot see what you are talking about, I have my eyes closed, I am afraid to open them, fearing this is all a dream."
Glenda Faye was silent; this was a bittersweet moment for her, right after the wedding, Mr. McAtee, her former father-in- law, said he had something to tell her after the reception. Glenda Faye wished Mr. McAtee had kept silent and at least given her this night with no worries. She would not let this ruin her wedding night. "I loved our wedding, it was perfect, each one of us a bride in our own right, but yet all together as one," said Glenda Faye. "Yes, I will remember this for the rest of my life, the only thing that could compare to it, was the day you came up out of the lake and I saw you for the first time," said Josh Wakefield, Glenda's new husband. Glenda Faye, turned bright red, she remembered that hot summer day, when she threw caution to the wind, giving her swimming suit a toss up to the beach. Josh, was standing on the beach when she came up from a little dive in the water, all she could see was his wonderful smile with teeth as white as the snow that was falling all around them now. "Yes, that was really an embarrassing moment at the time, but after I got my clothes on, the rest was history, as they say. I knew at my first glance of you, that I was falling in love, as we sat and talked as the sun was setting over the water. When you had to leave me there alone I thought my heart would break," said Glenda Faye.
"Enough of the sadness, this is our party, let it begin right now, everyone grab a glass, I will pour the champagne," said Ace, Maggie's new husband. Everyone held up his or her crystal goblet and Ace poured a hefty amount of bubbling amber liquid for the toast. The bottle was empty when he finished and they all knew to take it slow, they had a whole night before them to drink and party at the reception.
Red held up her goblet and said, "For the first time in my life, I have no words of wisdom for the three of us, make that, the six of us. All that comes to mind is happiness, loyalty and love, with those three attributes, you cannot go wrong in life." "For having no words, you sure picked the prefect toast to our futures, I think that just about covers everything, we just have to abide by our own rules, just set in place by Red," said Maggie.
"I would like to make a toast, I will keep it short, here is to Patricia, who I know was with us this night, watching over the small baby named after her," said John, who is Sandra Kay's (Red's), new husband.
John Ryan had been married before, but his wife, Patricia had lost her pregnancy in a partial stillbirth, on a cold snowy night such as this very night. Patricia never recovered from the ordeal and passed away, as some would say with a broken heart. When Red rescued a small infant from the jungle in the South Pacific, just before the Japanese took over the island, she met John Ryan. They fell in love and adopted the little boy. In Patricia's honor they named the infant Patrick Joseph Ryan, also for Red's father, Joseph Murphy. Everyone in the sedan had tear-filled eyes, but they were happy tears for Mr. and Mrs. John Ryan.
Chapter Three
"Maggie Has Questions"
Maggie leaned back against the soft velvet of the seat in the sedan, she looked at all three of the grooms, and she wondered what kind of husbands they would make. She put her own father up as an example to live up to, he was kind, gentle and fair, and the traits you look for in a man. There was one time Maggie remembered when she questioned her father about the relationship he had with her mother.
The time in question was in late August, she and her daddy were gathering the last of the summer harvest from the garden. "Daddy, Maggie said, I want to ask you something, but I am fearful of the asking of such a personal question." Daddy looked at Maggie, with a puzzlement on his face. He said, "Go in the house and fetch a salt shaker and come meet me at the arbor bench. We will talk this out over some fresh ripe sun kissed tomatoes."
Maggie did as she was told, she returned to the garden bench just as daddy was finishing washing the tomatoes under the garden pump. She had brought out a bowl and two napkins along with the salt shaker. Daddy seated himself along side Maggie, "Now what is this monumental question you have for me?" asked daddy.
Maggie took a gulp of air and kind of choked, the words were hard coming, but she thought to herself, "Here goes nothing!" "Daddy, I am going to get married and I want to know how you have kept your own marriage on such an even keel for so many years? I have been there, and for as long as I can remember, mother has had really blue periods and would snap your head off for absolutely nothing. You would always put your arms around her and say, "Now, now, mother, everything will be alright." It always happened in January and February of the year, what brought this on? How did you cope with her for so many years," said Maggie.
Daddy laid down his half eaten tomato, wiped the juice from his chin and said, "Maggie, my dear child, there are things that happen between a husband and wife that only they can share and bare together. That is why when these distant memories come to mind, they can only take it out on you, because only you understand their hurt."
"I don't understand," said Maggie. Daddy went on with his story, it was the winter of the worse diphtheria outbreak that anyone could recall for many years. Your mother had nursed me through a light case of it, but it still was a three month ordeal. I was sick from Thanksgiving until after Christmas of that year. It was before you or your youngest brother, Joseph were born. We lived on the east side of Indianapolis at this time, there was your mother, your first brother, little Harold and baby James. Mother was pregnant again with her third child at the time.
We were having a fierce snow storm when I got home from working on several large estates going up on the east side of town. Myself and Austin Bates were making the cabinets and the beautiful woodwork on the inside of the mansions, because of the winter weather. Mother was at the stove, she was humming an old Irish tune, Harold was only six, but he was a big help to your mother, he laid out the table and kept your brother James occupied. James was banging his spoon on the wooden tray of his high chair and making blubbering sounds. He was such a happy little toddler as was little Harold, as we came to call him. He would always say, "I am a big boy, papa."
Mother put supper on the table, she had made Harold's favorite potato soup and hot buttered yeast rolls. I don't know how she did all she did, with being pregnant and two boys to care for. There was peach cobbler still bubbling on the back of the stove. We said grace and started to eat, Harold wasn't eating, he stirred his soup, but didn't eat but a teaspoon or two when he laid his spoon down and put his head in his hands.
I got up and went around the table, I looked at your mother and said, "This little one is burning with fever!" Mother immediately came to feel Harold's head, she had such fear come over her face, I thought she was going to faint. I picked the little boy up and placed him on the cot beside mother's sewing machine, where he would take his naps while she sewed. While mother took care of Harold, I cleaned the kitchen and tended to the baby. I was in the living room parlor when mother came in, she was white as a sheet. She said, "You have to go to the chemist and phone the doctor, I believe it is the diphtheria and I don't know what to do for a small child."
I did not waste any time, I bundled up to fight the cold for the mile long walk to the chemist shop. The snow was blinding and it took twice as long to make the trip. I stamped my feet and talked to the chemist and he called the doctor for me, they talked and he related my dilemma to the doctor. I was given three bottles of medicine and instructions for the administration to little Harold. I thanked the chemist and made the long trip home against the snow, when I walked in, I was half frozen, I put the medicine against my chest to keep it from freezing on the walk home.
Mother was bathing little Harold with a basin of cold water and propped him up on pillows so he could breath easier. I undressed and came in with the bottles, my hands were so cold I almost dropped them, but mother came to the rescue and caught my hands in hers. We really did not exchange many words about our fears, but we both knew it was a grave situation. I told mother exactly what the chemist's instructions were, which were the same as the way she treated my illness a few months ago.
I sat by the stove, the baby was asleep in his crib in the front of the house. Mother heated the outing flannel with hot water that had the camphor oil poured into it. This would help Harold breath easier, she kept cold compresses on his little forehead. Harold looked up at us fussing over him and said, "I am a big boy, papa and momma, and you don't have to make so much of my headache." Mother couldn't take this, she turned away and went to the stove and cried silent tears for her beloved little boy, her first born. He had slipped so easy into this world, not a whimper and causing his mother little discomfort. She prayed to God, I could hear a few of her words and they were the same as mine, "Don't take our little boy!"
I told mother after Harold drifted off to sleep that we were to take the baby away in the morning according to the doActor. She knew she could depend on her best friend, Mrs. Murphy, without even a phone call. Mother sat up in her rocker all night and dosed fitfully as did Harold. I slept with the baby, I knew I had a long day ahead of me tomorrow. The snow had stopped and the wind had died down, thank the good Lord for this favor.
The next morning, when Austin Bates came to pick me up for work, I filled him in on what had to be done due to Harold's illness. Mother bundled the baby up till you could not see his little face, Austin carried his little valise to the horse drawn truck and I carried the baby. We got inside and drove the horses as fast as we could to the Murphy's house. The day broke with warm sunshine and no snow, we pulled up in front of the Murphy's, I got out and Austin handed me the baby and the valise.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from True Friends of the Heart by Saragene Stamm Adkins Copyright © 2010 by Saragene Stamm Adkins. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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