Lynda and Chuck, Heaven Admin did indeed find the missing notepad entry.

First are your comments, Lynda and then my response to you. And then your words, Chuck, and my response to you.

Lynda posted:

From the above reactions, many will be reading the final chapters of Oleander Court along with me.

I do believe we are mirrors for each other. Your story about your sister Sylvia brought to light many situations with my mother.

I had a neighbor across the street from me growing up who could have been Helene. She was practicing the rhythm method as well, had eight children.  In her case, when her children grew up, she left her husband.

Then there is Lily. My mother’s best friend was very similar to Lily. She left her husband for a younger man, who then left her.

And while in counseling, (with my ex-husband who was physically there, but miles away, and would tune both of us out when things got tough) it became very clear to me that I needed to move on. And the counsellor, although trying to remain neutral, agreed. God had no place in my husband’s world. His life was and is about control, and although the God we all know here is nothing about control, he believed that if he gave anything away to a higher power, he would lose control.

I needed to stand strong and continue my spiritual growth and practice. And my life and world is the better for making that decision.

So, yes Gloria, I can hardly wait for the final chapters.

[later]

Now that I have read the the whole story, Gloria, you will laugh when you read this -but the TV show that kept coming into my mind was “Desperate Housewives,” while I was reading about Lily needing tranquilizers and Helene slamming the baby bottle on the card table.

You have such an ability to keep the reader riveted as they read every sentence and become part of the story.

And you just knew that the way Beverly looked at the shiny head of Hal, the time was coming.

And the thing is, there is so much in between the stages of what happens, but it doesn’t matter. it has a perfect lilt to it.

I just have one question -what happened to Lily?

Ah, Lynda, in response to your question about Lily, I don’t know. I never knew. If anyone ever knew, I don’t know. I know she was a wonderful loving person and dear friend to me, and, she had a heartbreaking decision to make. I do not know if Lily is alive. I have been thinking about her so much lately that I am wondering if she hasn’t passed over, and she is, well, like visiting me, or maybe it’s the attention on the story that brings such a sense of her to me.

I long to know about her little boy, Matty, and her dear husband Fred.  I guess I will never know.

The story talks about the decision Beverly had to make. But I wonder how much it was  a decision. It may have been that there was no alternative and no decision to make.  If it really was a decision, the question Beverly had to ask was: Which is possibly the least worse of the two choices?  And Beverly chose, if she did actually choose, the unknown over the known. Beverly did initiate the separation, and so, on that level, she chose, yet maybe she was just moved along by life.

Helene couldn’t decide to love her 8th baby. Of course, she would have decided that if it could have been a decision.  Gosh, I don’t know the rest of Helene and Mitchell’s story either, but my feeling is that they would have stayed together. I never heard or saw any indication that they were ever wanting to be apart. Their resentment toward the latest baby did not last forever.

Of course, Lily would have decided to stay with her husband and son and stay within the mores of our society if she could have.

As for Desperate Housewives, I have never watched it. The housewives really live their lives in front of a camera?!!!

Chuck posted:

Got your whole story, read it, loved it.

I don’t watch Desperate Housewives, but my wife does and I have to agree with Lynda completely.

Very nice! A great, engaging, moving story. It captures the time, the emotions and the people well in a masterful use of simple images. I see why you feel it is not Heavenletters blog material, though. But reading the story is like watching a well written and well acted movie. Your ability to bring your stories to life is quite remarkable, Gloria. A whole book of stories like this one would be a good book and well worth writing. Have you ever considered writing a novel?

Chuck, Oleander Court will be part of the book presently called The Little Things which includes my family stories etc. In a sense, it will be a novel, a mixed-up one,  based on truth and reported as accurately as possible, more on the idea of glimpses rather than everything  included. I love the idea of one chapter’s being a fairy tale, and another a short story.

Chuck, in an earlier posting of yours, you mentioned the book you are working on and your daughter’s suggestion that you include some of your own story that led up to your writing the book. I think that’s a great suggestion, and I look forward to reading your story.

As I tell “Beverly’s” story, it feels like I am retelling a story that I made up, do you know what I mean? Do you have any of that?

I have that same feeling when I say, for example: “I went to Romania. I gave a Godwriting workshop at the Dead Sea. I am a Godwriter. ” It’s all absolutely true, yet I almost can’t connect to it.

I love all the comments and thank you for them.