New Beginnings & Cherished Memories
New Beginnings & Cherished Memories
The fourth series in the Dusty Town sequence.
Episode 13
October 3, 1899
Today was a most special day. The two people I reckon I love the most, my dearest friend Betty Lou and my boy Willie, celebrated another happy birthday. I teased Betty Lou about catching up to me being 66 now too. She laughed and said the same thing she’s said many a birthday, in six months I can tease you about being older! It’s kinda funny, all these years and I always felt like her younger brother, she helped me out of many things that I just couldn’t figure out for myself.
I think it is because I put too much of myself into everything that I lose sight sometimes of what the best decision or course of action would be. I always seem to be too close to the situation, having invested so much into it, emotionally and otherwise, that Betty Lou’s more objective view always tempered the way I saw things. It wasn’t always what I wanted to hear, or what was easy for me or for her to tell me I’m sure, but what Betty Lou thought was best, in the end it was best. I have been grateful for her support all these years and I hope I have told her so enough.
Willie, my youngest son, is now 33. I must feel like all fathers do as they see their children getting older and having children of their own. My! How the years have gone so quickly by! How proud I am of Willie! I could never have asked for a better son, and friend. I suppose he’ll never really know how he’s kept me going all these years through all the heartache and all the changes in my life. He has always been there with a smile and assurance and I always knew, no matter how tough things were in my life, and no matter how many miles apart we were, Willie would be there with me through it all. I really don’t know what I would have done without him. I sometimes think maybe I haven’t shown him just how much he means to me, but then I catch him looking at me with such love when he doesn’t see me looking, and then I know he knows I love him even more.
Jacob set his journal aside there on the front porch of his small home and closed his eyes for a moment. He listened to the Kansas sounds of dusk and felt the breeze on his face. It was early fall and the summer crickets were gone despite it being a warm evening. The breeze was a sweet Kansas breeze, soft and cool and calming. The leaves still on the trees rustled quietly. The smell of their fields came floating toward him on the breeze. He opened his eyes and caught a glimpse of the last sliver of the sun as it set on another day.
And he saw Sue put a lantern out on the front porch of their farmhouse a way across the fields in case he wanted to come over and sit with them before turning in for the night. But not tonight, Jacob thought. Instead, he got up and started walking the trails around the home Willie and Betty Lou had so kindly made for him, hoping he would stay and not leave them ever again. Jacob smiled and thought himself the happiest man in the world.
Read Prior Episodes of New Beginnings & Cherished Memories
Starting Over Again in Kansas. Episode 1
Nothing’s Changes. Everything’s Changes. Episode 2
Knowing What to Do When the Time Comes. Episode 3
Still Plenty of Sweet Living Left for Them. Episode 4
Morning Light. Episode 5
”You can’t count how much we all love you.” Episode 6
A Spare Room in the Back of the Store. Episode 7
The Stars at Night. Episode 8
Aunt Daisy! Episode 9
Sometimes Dreams Do Come True. Episode 10
A Sweet Sunset. Episode 11
Aunt Daisy is Coming! Episode 12
A Most Special Day. Episode 13 (This one)
