My Whole World
My Whole World is the sixth series in the Dusty Town original historical fiction sequence written by Mary Ann DiLorenzo. Set in rural Kansas just prior to the turn of the century and continuing through the early 1900s, the series follows the Strong family through the challenges and joys of life in Midwest America.
And Just Like That, Everything’s Changed. Episode 1.
Jake, Willie’s oldest child and my whole world, Willie would say, was 11 1/2 that summer of 1905. It was the summer Sue told Willie she didn’t want to be a farmer’s wife anymore.
One of Sue’s brothers had long ago left farming and gone seeking adventure when he had turned 18. He eventually settled into city life in northern Georgia where his career in business took him around the world and allowed him the rewards of great wealth. For several years now, he thought it would be good for Sue and Willie and their children to get a taste of city life and spend some time with him and his wife and their children. No, Sue would always say, we have the farm to take care of and there is no time for gallivanting across the country. But that summer of 1905, having for so many years battled times of drought, all too often lean times for various reasons, and endless hard work and heartache, and having never seen anything but their little part of the world, farming seemed to make no sense to her anymore. That something new her brother offered called her loud and clear.
Once she had made up her mind and was sure it was what she had to do, Sue told Willie one night on that same front porch where Willie and his brother Robert and his pa, Jacob, and his ma, Madeline, had spent the happy summer evenings when Jacob’s family was still young. And then, after Robert and Madeline were gone, it was Willie and Jacob, and Betty Lou, spending those summer evenings fighting the sadness and moving forward with their lives. Willie couldn’t help but think of all that when Sue told him. Willie, at first supposing Sue wanted them all to go and just visit her brother and his family, explained how they really could not leave the farm behind for visiting so far away. Then Sue told him she was leaving with the children and they weren’t coming back. It all was swirling in Willie’s mind, how she told him forever when she married him and now it wasn’t anymore. He told her, I’m sorry, I don’t understand. She got up from the porch and went inside the house. The next morning while he was still asleep, Sue and the children, Willie’s wife and children, were gone.
Sue’s note was simple. Willie found it on the kitchen table. It read:
Willie,
I can’t be a farmer’s wife anymore. I’m tired, so tired. I hope one day you’ll understand. Please come visit the children if you can as they will miss you so. Sue
And then in the corner of the kitchen, he saw Jake’s old teddy bear, the one Jake had left for his grampa for a companion when Jake was still small, with a piece of paper next to it. The paper read, Dad, I miss you already. Please come see me soon. You’re my whole world too. I love you. Please don’t forget me. Jake
Willie sat down at the table in that old farmhouse kitchen. He put his head down on his arms and cried.
Note from the Author: This series was inspired by Zac Brown Band’s Highway 20 Ride.
