wonderful. Daddy, I just couldn’t marry someone and have it possibly end up like you and mother. Please don’t find me disgusting. Please forgive me.” Her eyes registered a pleading insistence.
My heart was heavy and I’m not sure if it was sadness or happiness, probably a mixture of both. I held her sweet little face between my hands and managed to say, “Susie, Susie.” The lump in my throat was making it difficult to talk. “You could never be disgusting. The forgiveness doesn’t need to come from me to you. No. It’s me who needs your forgiveness for making such a mess of things.” We fell into each other’s arms.
She sobbed as tears streamed down my face unabashedly.
I found my composure first. I whispered into her hair. “I wanted everything to be completely storybook for you, my precious daughter. It didn’t happen that way. But, when I look at you and Jeff, I feel you’ve conquered your doubts and have found happiness. If I’m right, everything is fine with me.”
She looked up at me. “Oh Daddy, I love you so much. You’re the greatest.” She was smiling through her tears and it was infectious.
“I hope you’ll always feel that way, because I think you’re the greatest too.”
She was smiling now and I thought I saw some of that twinkle coming back into her eyes. She became serious again. “Dad, do you think there’s any hope that Mother will find some happiness now that grandmother can no longer influence her?”
I had given up on Amy years ago and felt I had to answer Susie honestly. “I doubt it.” Her sad face caused me to add, “But, we can hope and pray for it. Okay?”
“I will. Everyday.”
*****
Susie and Jeff had a quiet little wedding with only family in attendance. His folks felt like I did. They wished the circumstances had been better, but they liked Susie and welcomed her into their family circle with open arms.
The young couple took up residence in a little cottage on his father’s ranch and settled down like the happy newlyweds they truly were. Jeff went to work with his father out on their ranch. He said he wasn’t giving up on college, just postponing it. I believe him. Jeff is the kind of boy who does what he says he’s going to do. He is a man of his word. Besides, he’s crazy about my daughter so he has to be an all right guy.
Susie’s pregnancy went unbelievably fast and before we knew it, she was the ecstatic mother of a seven-pound baby boy. Jeff was delighted, to say nothing of the rest of the Lawrence clan. She had an easy birth and the doctor said she could probably have a dozen or more babies with no problems. It wouldn’t surprise me if they do, because those two kids have enough love in their hearts for that many.
Like I said at the beginning of my story, it’s looking down at this little bundle of joy that is my grandson that somehow makes everything I’ve been though worthwhile. I feel good about the future and actually look forward to each new day. I just turned thirty-eight and I’ve heard that life begins at forty.
And best of all, Amy seems to be finding some peace and happiness. She has been coming to my room, to my bed almost nightly for the past month. It’s not perfect, but it has definite possibilities. She seems happy most of the time.
Just last night, after an unusually long and warm joining, a full moon radiated a golden glow that crept slowly through the window, across the room, up onto my bed and came to rest on the face of a contented, smiling Amy.
The End
AUTHOR’S BIO: Sharon Poppen ( www.sharonpoppen.com ) esides in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. She has won awards from Arizona Authors Assoc. and National League of American Pen Women. Her western novels After the War, Before the Peace, Hannah, Abby-Finding More Than Gold and her sci/fi novel
My heart was heavy and I’m not sure if it was sadness or happiness, probably a mixture of both. I held her sweet little face between my hands and managed to say, “Susie, Susie.” The lump in my throat was making it difficult to talk. “You could never be disgusting. The forgiveness doesn’t need to come from me to you. No. It’s me who needs your forgiveness for making such a mess of things.” We fell into each other’s arms.
She sobbed as tears streamed down my face unabashedly.
I found my composure first. I whispered into her hair. “I wanted everything to be completely storybook for you, my precious daughter. It didn’t happen that way. But, when I look at you and Jeff, I feel you’ve conquered your doubts and have found happiness. If I’m right, everything is fine with me.”
She looked up at me. “Oh Daddy, I love you so much. You’re the greatest.” She was smiling through her tears and it was infectious.
“I hope you’ll always feel that way, because I think you’re the greatest too.”
She was smiling now and I thought I saw some of that twinkle coming back into her eyes. She became serious again. “Dad, do you think there’s any hope that Mother will find some happiness now that grandmother can no longer influence her?”
I had given up on Amy years ago and felt I had to answer Susie honestly. “I doubt it.” Her sad face caused me to add, “But, we can hope and pray for it. Okay?”
“I will. Everyday.”
*****
Susie and Jeff had a quiet little wedding with only family in attendance. His folks felt like I did. They wished the circumstances had been better, but they liked Susie and welcomed her into their family circle with open arms.
The young couple took up residence in a little cottage on his father’s ranch and settled down like the happy newlyweds they truly were. Jeff went to work with his father out on their ranch. He said he wasn’t giving up on college, just postponing it. I believe him. Jeff is the kind of boy who does what he says he’s going to do. He is a man of his word. Besides, he’s crazy about my daughter so he has to be an all right guy.
Susie’s pregnancy went unbelievably fast and before we knew it, she was the ecstatic mother of a seven-pound baby boy. Jeff was delighted, to say nothing of the rest of the Lawrence clan. She had an easy birth and the doctor said she could probably have a dozen or more babies with no problems. It wouldn’t surprise me if they do, because those two kids have enough love in their hearts for that many.
Like I said at the beginning of my story, it’s looking down at this little bundle of joy that is my grandson that somehow makes everything I’ve been though worthwhile. I feel good about the future and actually look forward to each new day. I just turned thirty-eight and I’ve heard that life begins at forty.
And best of all, Amy seems to be finding some peace and happiness. She has been coming to my room, to my bed almost nightly for the past month. It’s not perfect, but it has definite possibilities. She seems happy most of the time.
Just last night, after an unusually long and warm joining, a full moon radiated a golden glow that crept slowly through the window, across the room, up onto my bed and came to rest on the face of a contented, smiling Amy.
The End
AUTHOR’S BIO: Sharon Poppen ( www.sharonpoppen.com ) esides in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. She has won awards from Arizona Authors Assoc. and National League of American Pen Women. Her western novels After the War, Before the Peace, Hannah, Abby-Finding More Than Gold and her sci/fi novel
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