The full-length mirror attached to the front of the door reflected his image as he closed the closet door and looked at himself. He reached back onto the bed for his tie that still had the knot in it. He’d never untied the knot, just loosened it and slipped it on and off. Father had always maintained that like the knot in his tie, his marriage with Anna would never come undone. If the full truth be known however, he could never remember how to loop it all.
After tightening his tie, he turned his shirt collar over it and slipped on his suit jacket. He looked at himself in the mirror, shuffling his shoulders, settling the jacket until it fit his body comfortably. He could easily have married again after Anna died; outlived two or three wives by the looks of it. But, he chose to marry his Lord and he saw the results of his choice reflected in the mirror.
“Oh,” said Father, as a thought came to him.
He went over to the window sill and snapped off a bright yellow geranium and then stuck it into the hole of his lapel. He walked back to the full length mirror and looked at himself, again. He smiled and winked at his image, “Not bad for a man of 100.” Father looked incredibly good for his age, but he could see the growing weariness in his eyes the only evidence of his aging.
“Well, Lord, I am ready if you are, my will is your will. Yes, today seems like a good day for another wedding.”
COMING SOON
The Angelic Letters Series
Book Five
Angel Promises
Fulfilled
1988–1989
henry k. ripplinger
The following is a preview of Chapter One
Chapter One
Henry sped down Pasqua street heading south. His heart was racing and pounding so hard he thought for sure it would explode out of his chest. Beads of perspiration were beginning to roll down his forehead trickling into his eyes. He brushed them away with the back of his hand.
“Oh, Jenny, please hang in there.” Geez, for months already he could have been seeing her. Marjorie’s house was less than a mile away from the Santa Maria Home, for Pete’ s sake. He remembered when he called the care home and asked about her. If only he had challenged the nurse on duty at the time. That he was more than family and had every right to see her. Perhaps if he had gone down there and pleaded with them or had asked them to ask Marjorie if she would see him,
But that’s the past, Henry. What’s done is done. Henry reached up and clutched the angel once again.
“Oh please, guardian angel, get me there on time.”
The light had turned yellow as he approached the intersection of Dewdney and Pasqua. He hit the gas and sped through but rather than slow down he kept increasing the gas…
“Oh, no…he heard a siren and looked into his rear-view mirror and saw a patrol car almost touching his bumper.
Henry slowed and pulled over. His heart almost in his mouth. He knew better than to speed, but it’s… a life and death situation.
Henry rolled down his window as the officer approached the car.
“Can I see your driver’s license, sir,” the officer asked.
Henry already had his wallet out in anticipation of the question. He deserved a ticket and wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.
“Did you know you went through a late yellow light. It was well into the red by the time you got through the intersection.”
“I’m sorry, officer I was so close to the intersection I decided to go through… I was going quite fas…”
“That’s exactly right. You were going fast; too fast. I was sitting on Dewdney waiting for the light to change and saw you barreling down Pasqua and after you went through the light you didn’t slow down either. Seems to me you went still faster.”
“I know…but I can explain. I just learned that a girl I knew and was very fond of 30 years ago is very ill at the Santa Maria Home and apparently her case is terminal. I was hoping I could see her before…well before something happens to her…” Henry didn’t even want to think that Jenny might be dead.
“That may be, but in trying to get to her before she may pass away you are putting yourself and others in danger.”
Henry nodded, clearly guilty, yet hoping the officer would simply give him his ticket and let him go.
The officer turned to go back to his squad car and write up a ticket when he noticed who Henry was. He came back to the car.
“Say, are you Henry Pederson the artist?”
“Guilty again, officer, I am.”
“I can’t believe this. We have one of your prints hanging in our living room. My wife and I got it when we married five years ago. It’s the one of a boy and his dog standing beside a dugout behind the barn in a farm yard. He’s tossing a stone across the water to make it skip on the surface. I used to do that all the time.”
Henry appreciated the fact that the police officer had a piece of his art but desperately wanted to go. He simply smiled and nodded not wanting to get into a conversation.”
“I know you’re in a hurry…look, I’ll give you a warning this time.”
The officer tightened his lips and tilted his head as a sign he could change his mind but before he could, Henry said, “I promise officer I’ll be more observant of my speed. Normally I am, it’s just that I want to see Jenny before it’s too late.”
“You said she is in the Santa Maria Home?”
“Yeah.” Henry nodded.
“Okay, look …follow me.”
The officer hurried back to his car. No sooner had he started the vehicle he turned on the siren and proceeded down Pasqua towards the care home. Henry followed and waved to the officer when they got there.
Just as he pulled into the Santa Maria parking lot, he saw Camilla run out of the care home crying. She looked so upset… She ran to her car and before Henry could even get out and run to her, she sped away even more in a hurry than he was to get here.
What was she doing here? Who was she visiting or seeing?
He wondered if she had ever found out if she was adopted or not.?
Henry thought about going after her and explaining what he just found out about Marjorie but he was more torn to see Jenny.
He hoped that Camilla would drive more carefully and slowly and not get caught speeding like he did. Geez wouldn’t that be something if she got caught by the same officer…another dangerous Pederson!”
The lady at the reception desk looked up as Henry burst through the door. He slowed to barely a walk.
“Good morning,” he said, as he resolutely walked past the desk. He was already detained once and he couldn’t deal with another interference. Henry caught his breath and blurted, “I know the room number of the patient I want to see.”
He was glad Father had given him the room number otherwise he might have been held back again or told only relatives were allowed. The elevator doors opened up just as he got there. He stepped inside and hit the number four button several times.
“Who are you going to see?” the lady at the reception desk hollered, as she chased after him.
“A very close friend—.”
The last part of the sentence was cut off by the closed doors and simply echoed within the confined elevator. Henry shifted from one foot to the other, wanting to help lift the slow elevator as it climbed past the second and third floor. His heart hammered inside his chest. Beads of perspiration formed on his forehead and sweat under his armpits rolled down his sides joining the wetness of his undershirt soaked from the sweat off his back. It was as if he stepped out of the shower and put his clothes on without drying first. He pulled on the back of his sports jacket to free his back from sticking to his clammy shirt. Exhaustion from the roller-coaster of emotions was closing in. He breathed deeply to ward off a dizzy spell.
Finally, the elevator bounced to a stop and the doors opened none too soon. Cool air from the
air conditioner on the fourth floor gushed into the stuffy elevator, offering Henry some relief. He grabbed the lapels of his jacket with both hands and flapped them back and forth. Along with the cool blasts of air to his face and chest came a growing nervousness.
“What if she doesn’t recognize me or is upset with me for not writing.” Hopefully she got his letter like he got hers. He recalled Mr. Sarsky’s secretary saying she sent his letter to Jenny at the same time.
One thought after the other buzzed through his mind…
He shivered.
Only one nurse seemed to be on duty at the nurse’s station, and she was busy writing something behind the raised counter. Henry slowed down and tried to soften his footsteps checking the room numbers as he proceeded down the hall. Room 453 was just to his right so room 455 must be at the end of the hall.
As he passed the station he sped up, the nurse looked up and called out, “Sir, excuse me, sir.”
Henry pretended not to hear her and quickened his pace as much as he could. He heard her bumping into her desk and a chair tipping over. To see Jenny was his mission, he’d deal with the protocol of patient visits later. He read the number outside the room; 455.
As he turned in, another nurse was coming out carrying linen. Henry bumped into her, almost knocking her over in the doorway.
“Oh, I am so sorry,” he whispered.
He rushed into the room and looked over to the bed.
Instant panic swept through him. He staggered backwards and once again bumped into the other nurse from the nurse’s station who had finally caught up to him.
“Oh no,” Henry cried, “I’m too late.”
His heart thumped, ready to burst. The sight of seeing an empty bed was too much…
Jenny was gone!
About the Author
Henry ripplinger is the bestselling author of Pewter Angels, Another Angel of Love, and Angel of Thanksgiving, the first three books in the six-book series “The Angelic Letters.” The overwhelming response by readers to Henry’s novels gives testimony to Henry’s gifts as an author to write books that touch human hearts and offer direction to their lives.
Henry’s empathetic abilities, combined with his lifelong experience and eclectic career as a high school teacher, guidance counselor, professional artist and businessman, prepared him to craft this inspirational christian romance series and indirectly realize his aspirations of writing a self-development book.
Henry is also one of Canada’s foremost prairie artists. His work is on display at private and corporate collections across Canada, most notably in Saskatchewan, his home province, and can be seen in the critically acclaimed book, If You’re Not from the Prairie.
He resides with his wife in the panoramic valley setting of Lumsden, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Please e-mail Henry at: [email protected] or visit www.henryripplinger.com for more information about Henry’s work and art. He would love to hear from you!
also by henry ripplinger
Pewter Angels
Book One of The Angelic Letters Series
“He hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee
in all thy ways…In their hands they shall bear thee up:
lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
Psalm 91:11-12
…Suddenly, she turned to Henry as if to speak, catching him off guard. He didn’t have time to pretend he wasn’t staring at her. He’d been caught. Their eyes met now for a second time and although he felt his face warming again with a blush, this time he couldn’t turn away. Her gaze locked with his and his with hers. They rose from their knees simultaneously, as if lifted, and were at once standing, facing each other.
Nothing existed except this moment and this place.
A charged, earthly attraction united their hearts while a spiritual energy traveled the length of the gaze they shared, drawing their souls from their bodies and joining them at the halfway point. The aura around them brightened…enclosing both in the surrounding glow of their celestial connection.
Time stood still…
Pewter Angels will grab your heart, squeeze it
and hold it to the very last page.
Another Angel Of Love
Book Two of The Angelic Letters Series
“God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”
Romans 8:28
It was as if Jenny had vanished from the face of the earth. Two years after she and her family moved out of Henry’s life, Henry still longs for her, their whirlwind romance gone from his life but not his heart. He was certain she would respond to his last letter, a pewter angel tucked inside —but there have been no letters, no phone calls. Nothing. A country apart, Henry and Jenny are unaware Jenny’s parents have burned all the letters but the last… it is protected, it seems, by an angelic power.
Henry continues to rely on the love, support and powerful insights of his mentor Mr. Engelmann, and his secret plan to seek Jenny out sustains the hope that one day his love will return—until he meets Julean Carter.
But, is their new-found love deep enough and strong enough to overcome the heavenly touch that entwined Henry and Jenny’s spirits when they first gazed into each others eyes?
Another Angel of Love…glows with moments of tenderness…deeply inspirational….will captivate the heart of every reader!
Angel Of Thanksgiving
Book Three of The Angelic Letters Series
This may be the single most moving book you will read this year—or in your life time.
Henry and Julean couldn’t be happier. With a new baby, a new home and Henry’s new job, everything is turning out perfectly for the young couple. Or is it? Henry can’t seem to shake the memory of Jenny from his mind or the love he still feels for her. Little does he know, his wife is all-too-aware of Henry’s hidden thoughts and feelings. Meanwhile, Father Engelmann, back from seminary school and creating a sensation as the new parish priest, is caught in the middle when both Henry and Julean confess to him about Jenny.
Will Jenny finally give in to James’ persistent proposals, knowing that once married her chance to reunite with Henry would be gone forever? Spanning two decades, Angel of Thanksgiving takes the reader on an incredible journey of faith, hope and love. As we see Henry and Jenny’s lives unfolding separately and so far apart, will destiny bring them together again?
Timeless Biblical themes as surrendering to God’s will, forgiveness, and unconditional love are beautifully portrayed through unforgettable, real-life characters in this compelling, hard to put down novel.
Make a huge space in your heart before you begin to read Angel of Thanksgiving as it will quickly fill with love’s beauty and wonder.
If You’re Not from the Prairie, written by David Bouchard and illustrated by Henry Ripplinger, is a poetic and visual journey depicting the prairies and the people who have made this diverse land their own…a treasure for the mind and soul.
To contact the author and for further information about these books as well as other artwork, limited edition prints and other products, please visit:
www.henryripplinger.com
The Angelic Occurrence Page 70
