Reading about Ben’s
funeral and Florence's sorrow saddened me so much that I went to bed crying. The last time I cried
like this was when my Grandmother Charmaine died. It felt as if I was drawing poor
little Charmaine’s pain. I had accepted the fact that little Charmaine and my
Grandmother Charmaine were the same person. Maybe that was the reason why I was
feeling so sad. She was losing the closest thing she had to a father and she must have been devastated at Ben's death. Poor little Charmaine. I was happy, however, that her relationship with Stanley Wharbucks had
improved. I said my prayers and, hugging my pillow, I finally drifted off to sleep.
Maud stopped by the
house in the morning to get some more clothing for herself as she had
decided to stay with Cassie and the children a little longer. I didn’t even
realize that it was New Year’s Day until she wished me ‘Happy New Year’, that’s
how taken up I was in my reading. She
asked me if it was okay for her to take her two weeks vacation leave at this time. I
was surprised because she normally took her vacation leave at the same time every
year. Even though Maud had settled here in Eltham Park, for the past fifteen
years, every year she would return to St. James at Easter for her church’s
annual convention. She was the head cook and bottle washer at this convention and would
not miss it for the world! Maud was personally responsible for the welfare
of the Overseer of the church and his wife who both travelled from overseas for the convention. This was a
position that she would not want any of the other women in the church to get. I told
her that I could only give her one week because, knowing Maud as well as I did,
she would still want her two weeks at Easter. She was not pleased but there was
nothing she could do about it. I asked her about Reverend Julian and she told
me he was visiting with his relatives in Portland and that it was the Sunday School
Teacher, Elder Francis, who had officiated and preached on Christmas
Sunday. When I heard that I did not feel
guilty for not being in church that day. Elder Francis was about eighty years old, but he spoke in a
falsetto voice that drove me crazy. I will definitely be missing church on New Year’s
Sunday because Maud said that Reverend Julian would not be returning until the
following Monday which meant that Elder Francis would be preaching again. Singing in falsetto voice was one thing but to also preach in it! Nope....I am not going! I packed another box of groceries for Maud to take for Cassie
and the children, including in it some English cookies that I was saving for
when my best friend Doreen was visiting from Florida. I told her to make sure
little Conroy got most of it and she gave me a look that I pretended not to
see. After she left, I sat on the verandah for a little while to read the newspapers.
So much had happened in the news that I had missed! I had not even turned
on the television since I had started to read the ledgers. The violence in
Spanish Town had gotten worse and persons were fleeing their homes! I
hope no one else comes knocking on my gate! I had my fill of ‘migrants’
and no one else will ever be allowed to cross my border! After making sure
that Maud had padlocked the gate I released the dogs from the kennel and went
back inside the house. I was settling down to watch the evening news when the
landline phone rang. I got annoyed, I hated when persons called me
at this time of the night. Don’t they know that the news is aired at this time? I was
tempted to not answer it but somehow I got the feeling that whomever was calling
was going to keep calling until I answered the telephone. It was Reverend Julian, he said
he had been calling my cellphone but was not getting any answer. I rolled my
eyes. He apologized for not letting me know that he would be out of town but it
was a spur of the moment decision to visit his relatives. He wanted to speak to me in my capacity as the church's secretary as there were some things that he wanted dealt with while he was away. He asked me to postpone the Presbytery meeting that was scheduled for the
first Friday in January and the Prayer Breakfast that was scheduled for the following Saturday as he would still be out of town.
He began to say something about the ‘migrants’ when I told him that I would speak with him when he returned. "Bye", I said and hung up the phone. I was in no mood to hear
anything about them tonight. Darn it! The news portion of the evening news was over.
I’ll now have to wait until ten o’ clock for the rebroadcast! Oh well, I'll finish reading the ledger in the meantime.
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