by Al Lacy
“I … I’m s-sorry,” he said, stuttering through tears that were threatening to spill down his cheeks again.
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
“I d-don’t mean to upset you.”
“You haven’t upset me. Please. Just tell me what’s wrong.”
Lips quivering, Dennis said, “Diana, why is Papa so mean? And why does he hate all of us?”
Diana’s heart felt like it was turning over inside her chest. How do I explain this to such a little child? she wondered as she looked down into his expectant face.
“Dennis, listen to me. Papa doesn’t hate us. He is just—well, he’s sick in his mind. He has a very bad temper, and he doesn’t know how to control it. This is what makes him mean. But he doesn’t hate us. When Mama comes home from the hospital, we’re going to do everything we can to make things better.”
Dennis’s expression took on a deeper look of inward pain. “Is Mama really coming home?” he asked with his chin quivering and tears pooling in his eyes.
“Of course she is.”
“Are you just telling me an’ Deborah an’ Daniel she’s coming home to make us feel better ’cause Mama’s really dead?”
Diana looked at him with surprise. “Oh no. Dennis, baby, I promise. Mama is not dead. In fact, she is getting better every day and will be coming home very soon.”
“You really promise?”
“Yes.”
A broad grin beamed on his wet cheeks. “Really?”
“Yes, really. Mama will be just fine. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“Oh boy!” Dennis said with elation. “I thought Mama was dead. I want her to come home. I love you, Diana, but … but I need Mama to tuck me in and tell me a story at bedtime.”
“I understand, honey. And I love you. Believe me, Mama will be home soon to do just that!”
Giving his big sister a tight hug, Dennis jumped down from his perch on her lap.
“Would you like to help me make bread, honey?” asked Diana.
“Sure,” he said, taking her hand. Together they made their way toward their kitchen.
It was just past ten o’clock when Martha looked up to see her two oldest children enter the room.
When they had both kissed her and were told that she was feeling better, Diana noted Laura’s empty bed and asked, “Where’s Mrs. Thomas?”
“They have her in the examining room to check her over where they did the surgery. She may be going home tomorrow.”
“Oh. I wish we could take you home tomorrow.”
“It’ll be soon, now, I’m sure. I want both of you to pull those chairs up and sit down beside the bed. I have something very important to tell you.”
Eyeing their mother curiously, they sat down. Martha explained that Pastor Bradford had shown her from the Bible about heaven and hell, and how Jesus Christ had died on the cross of Calvary to provide salvation for sinners. To be saved, she must repent of her sin and receive Jesus into her heart as her own personal Saviour. When she went on to tell them that she had done this, they were shocked.
While Derick stared at his mother in astonishment, Diana said, “Mama, I’m surprised at this because you and Papa have always taught us that this is foolish fanaticism.”
“Well, honey, we were wrong. I see it so plainly now. All these years, we’ve had Christmas at our house, but we were missing the whole point of God’s Son coming into the world by a virgin birth. It wasn’t just to give the world a holiday. It was to provide salvation for all of us, because all of us are sinners before God. It’s so wonderful to know that my sins are forgiven, and I will go to heaven when it’s time for me to leave this world.”
“I’m still stunned, Mama,” said Derick, “but I have to say that you have a sparkle in your eyes I’ve never seen before. I’m glad to see it.”
“Me too,” said Diana.
At that moment, there were pronounced footsteps, and all three looked up to see Dr. Bates enter the room.
Smiling, he said, “Hello, Diana, Derick. I’m here to check your mother’s condition. If she’s improved since I checked her yesterday, you can take her home tomorrow.”
Both young faces brightened as they left their chairs and moved them to give the doctor room to work.
Five minutes later, Bates smiled. “Just as I thought. She’s well enough to go home tomorrow. Is there someone who can look after her?”
“Yes, Doctor,” said Derick. “Us!”
“We’ll take care of her and give her all the help she needs, Dr. Bates,” said Diana, her own eyes sparkling. “We won’t let her do anything she shouldn’t do.”
“Sounds good to me,” said the doctor. “You can pick her up after nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”
Diana patted her mother’s cheek. “We’ll be here with bells on!”
The next morning, Dennis was sitting on the steps of the front porch of the house, where he had been since Derick and Diana drove away toward town. Deborah and Daniel were in the parlor, giving it a last minute touch-up in anticipation of their mother’s return. Dennis had his eyes fixed on the road, eagerly waiting for the first sign of the wagon and team. Twice, he had started to celebrate, but saw immediately that they were wagons belonging to neighboring farmers.
Suddenly there was movement on the road and a horse whinny. Dennis jumped to his feet and focused on the approaching wagon.
“Deborah! Daniel!” he cried. “It’s them! They have Mama in the wagon!”
Brother and sister joined him on the porch, and as the wagon turned off the road, the little boy jumped up and down, shouting, “It’s Mama! It’s Mama! Mama’s come home!”
Moments later, a smiling but obviously uncomfortable Martha Morrow beamed as she looked at her three youngest from the wagon seat. Dennis bounded off the porch as the wagon came to a halt near the porch and raced toward her. “Mama! Mama! I’m so glad you’re home!”
Hopping out of the wagon, Derick intercepted his brother, gripping his shoulders, and said, “Dennis, you wait right here. Mama’s arm is in a cast, and you must be careful not to hurt her.”
“I’ll be careful,” the child assured him, his eyes dancing. “I just need to hug her.”
Smiling, Martha allowed Derick and Daniel to ease her to the ground from the wagon seat. “Deborah and Daniel are next, but Mama will hug her baby first!”
Quickly enfolding her youngest child in her good arm as happy tears flowed freely down her bruised cheeks, Martha bent over and kissed the top of his blond head. Dennis hugged her arm and said, “I love you, Mama. I’m so glad you’re home!”
Martha chuckled. “I love you, honey, and I’m glad to be home!”
Dennis let go of the arm, and stepped back to allow Deborah and Daniel to greet their mother with kisses and careful hugs.
Diana had prepared the couch in the parlor for her mother to sit or lie on during the day. When Martha was comfortable on it, she said, “Daniel, Deborah, yesterday I told Derick and Diana about something wonderful that happened to me at the hospital the day before. When they picked me up this morning, I asked if they had told you about it, and they said they hadn’t. They felt I should be the one to tell you.”
Martha proceeded to tell Deborah and Daniel about having received the Lord Jesus as her own personal Saviour. Dennis listened, but Martha knew he was too young to grasp what she was saying, especially since he had not been exposed to anything about the Lord or the Bible.
When she finished, she saw the skepticism in the eyes of Deborah and Daniel, and assured them that she had seen the error of her ways. She made it clear that what she and their father had taught them on the subject was dead wrong. Though Deborah and Daniel were stunned, they too saw a light in their mother’s eyes they had never seen before.
Martha told herself she would have to go slow with all four of the older children because of what she and Stu had taught them all of their lives.
At midmorning the next day, Derick hitched the horses to the wagon at
the barn and headed for the front of the house. He was going to town to buy groceries, and he was taking his brothers with him.
In the parlor, Deborah was standing at the window while Diana sat beside Martha on the couch, and her younger brothers stood over them, talking about when their father would get out of jail. When Deborah saw Derick pull up in the wagon, she turned and said, “Okay, boys. Kiss Mama and hurry out the door. Derick just pulled up.”
Diana joined her sister at the window while Dennis and Daniel kissed their mother and darted out the door.
They watched the boys drive away, then Deborah turned back to her mother.
Diana stayed at the window, staring blankly through the glass. Soon tears began to course down her cheeks. Deborah was busy making her mother more comfortable on the couch, but Martha noticed her oldest daughter wiping tears. “Diana, honey, what are you crying about?”
Diana slowly turned. “I’m so afraid, Mama. I know I’ve got to leave home before Papa gets out of jail, but … but I’m afraid he will do what he told me. That he will track me down.”
“Honey,” said Martha, “we’re going to find a place for you where he won’t be able to track you down. Since I’ve been saved, I’ve been praying and asking Jesus to help us.”
Diana sniffed and blinked at more tears. “But Mama, even if we find such a place, Papa will make you tell him where I am.”
“Honey, wherever you go, no one in this family will tell Papa.”
“But he will probably try to beat it out of you.”
“Don’t you worry about it, Diana,” Martha said softly. “The thing we have to concentrate on now is where you’re going. And you need to be gone as soon as possible. It may be a great distance from here.”
“But where, Mama? And with no money, how will I get there?”
Before Martha could say more, Deborah noticed movement in the yard. “Maggie is here.”
Martha and Diana looked out the parlor window and saw Maggie O’Hearn pulling her buggy to a halt at the front of the house.
Maggie was met at the front door and ushered into the parlor. Smiling happily, Maggie took a beautiful Bible out of a cloth bag and presented it to Martha as a gift from Shamus and herself.
Holding the Bible in her free hand, Martha thanked Maggie, then laid it in her lap and opened it. The flyleaf held a note of love from the O’Hearns, saying how glad they were that Martha had become a Christian and that they looked forward to happy days in church together.
Looking up at Maggie, Martha said, “I hate to do it, but when Stu comes home, I’ll have to hide this beautiful Book from him. I’m afraid he would tear it up.”
Diana said, “Mama, Maggie, if you will excuse us, Deborah and I have work to do.”
When the girls were gone, Maggie sat down beside Martha and tried to encourage her about the situation with Stu.
Martha told Maggie about the Scriptures Pastor Bradford had shown her concerning the measure of grace God gives His children in their trials, and they talked about it for a few minutes.
Maggie gave her some examples of times in her own life when burdens and trials had been heavy, and how the Lord had given her His measure of grace each time she had let Him do it.
“Honey,” said Maggie, “Shamus and I are praying that the Lord will bring Stu to Himself, and of course, your children. We want to see the whole family saved.”
“Oh, Maggie,” said Martha, “what I wouldn’t give to see Stu become a Christian, but I have to admit my faith is pretty weak in that direction. I can visualize my children being saved, but Stu … that would be one great big miracle.”
“Well, it was a great big miracle when you got saved, wasn’t it?”
“Y-yes. I would have to say it was.”
“Well, God has a vast supply of miracles in His storehouse. Let’s believe Him for Stu … and your children.”
Martha’s eyes glistened. “Yes. Let’s believe Him for that.”
“Let’s have prayer right now, honey.”
“All right.”
Maggie then prayed with Martha, asking the Lord to bring Stu to Jesus, and also their children. She closed by thanking God that He would answer their prayers.
Martha silently thought on it. She had faith to believe that her children would be saved. But doubts assailed her about the big, hot-tempered, profane man who at the moment was behind bars.
IN RICHMOND, THE MORROW BOYS came out of the general store, carrying boxes of groceries. Even Dennis had a small box of paper goods and was proud to be helping his brothers. A slight breeze was plucking at their hair as they moved onto the boardwalk.
The wagon was a few paces down the street, and as the boys started that direction, Daniel’s attention was drawn to a newspaper that lay on a bench where people sometimes sat and talked while watching the traffic pass by. Its pages were flapping in the breeze.
When they reached the wagon and were putting the boxes in the back, Daniel said, “Hey, Derick, you know how much Mama loves to read newspapers, but she doesn’t get to do it very often because we can’t afford to buy them.”
Derick eyed him quizzically. “Yeah. What about it?”
Pointing at the bench and the flapping paper with his chin, Daniel said, “See the paper?”
“Yeah.”
“How about if I go get it and we’ll take it to Mama?”
“Sure. It’ll be all right to take it, since whoever bought it just left it there.”
Daniel was already in motion. He ran to the bench, picked up the paper, saw that it was that morning’s issue of the Richmond Chronicle, and dashed back to the wagon, smiling gleefully.
Derick and Dennis were already in the seat, and Derick had reins in hand, ready to go. Daniel climbed up into the seat, plunked down, and sighed. “This will make Mama very happy.”
Derick put the team in motion, and soon they were leaving the town behind and rolling along the bumpy country road.
Dennis really didn’t understand why his mother liked newspapers so well, but he felt positive that it would make her happy. He was excited to get home and see the expression on her face.
The time seemed to drag to the five-year-old, but finally they were on the home place. He climbed over the back of the seat and dropped into the bed of the wagon. Almost before the wagon came to a halt at the back porch of the house, Dennis jumped out over the tailgate and went running into the house.
“Bless his little heart,” Derick said as he and Daniel watched him go. “He’s always so eager to make Mama happy.”
“That proves he didn’t inherit Papa’s traits,” Daniel said.
“Mama! Mama!” said the little boy as he sped through the kitchen and dashed up the hall toward the parlor.
Suddenly, Diana came out of the girls’ bedroom and intercepted him.
“Whoa there, little man!” she said, laughing as she quickly grabbed him by the shoulders, bringing him to a sudden stop. “What’s the big hurry?”
“I got something special to tell Mama, Diana!” Dennis said as he tried to wrest his way out of her grasp.
“Okay, but slow down. You might hurt Mama’s arm if you go charging in there like a galloping horse and run into her.”
“I won’t do that, Diana,” Dennis said. “I promise. I just want to tell her about the surprise we have for her.”
By then, the other boys had carried the grocery boxes into the kitchen and heard Dennis’s words. Placing the boxes on the cupboard, they stepped back into the hall.
Diana looked back over her shoulder at Derick and Daniel, her eyebrows raised in question.
Daniel lifted the folded newspaper above his head so Diana could see plainly what it was. “This is what he’s so excited about. Let him go, so he can tell Mama. He’s been beside himself all the way home.”
Diana looked down at her youngest brother. He grinned up at her, a happy light dancing in his eyes. “All right, Dennis. But just slow down a bit, and go tell Mama your good news.”
Dennis gr
inned at her slyly, and with exaggerated slowness in each step, tiptoed into the parlor.
When Martha saw him, she said, “Well, there’s Mama’s little man. What’s all the excitement about?”
Still sporting a sly grin, Dennis sidled up to where his mother was sitting on the couch. He stopped in front of her, careful not to touch her.
Martha noted that her son was standing first on one foot, then the other, the happy gleam still dancing in his eyes. “Whatever is it, Dennis, that has you so excited?”
“Oh, Mama!” he said. “We found a present for you in town, and Derick and Daniel say you’re gonna love it!”
Even as Dennis was speaking, the two older brothers came into the parlor with Diana, and now Deborah, on their heels.
Martha ran her gaze to the older children, fixing it on the boys. “Well, what is this present you got for me, anyhow?”
Daniel, who had the newspaper behind his back, waggled his head slowly. “Aw, Mama, it isn’t all that great, but I know you’ll enjoy it. I found it on that bench in front of the general store. Somebody had left it there.”
“Hurry, Daniel!” said Dennis. “Give it to her!”
Grinning, Daniel brought the folded paper into his mother’s view and placed it in her lap.
Martha’s eyes shone as she realized what they had brought her. She laid her free hand on the paper, gave all three a smile of gratitude and said, “Thank you, boys, for being so thoughtful. I will enjoy it very much.”
Pressing against his mother’s knees, Dennis asked, “Did we do good, Mama?”
“You did real good, sweet one,” Martha responded, then leaned over and hugged him with her good arm. Reaching to the small end table beside the couch, she lifted her Bible up so they could see it. “I got another nice present while you were gone. Maggie and Shamus bought this Bible for me.”
Dennis looked at it with puzzlement. “What’s a Bible, Mama?”
“It’s God’s Book, honey. It tells all about God and His Son, Jesus.”
