Tonight is New Year's Eve. I like to reflect on things I might be looking forward to in the coming year. Now I know that by this time next year I will be a married women. All I can do is to pray to God to make Avery Longworth a nice man who will treat his new wife well. I have seen men hit their wives, right in front of other people. Or married men who go into the saloon and stay there for hours with the saloon women. I close my eyes tightly and try to picture what he looked like when he was here last year. I would have paid more attention to him if I had known why he had visited us.
My parents poured glasses of grape juice for us tonight before we went to bed. My father, offered a prayer to the Lord thanking him for our many blessings that we had this past year. Then he thanked the Lord for the blessings that would be bestowed on us, including Rachel's (me) upcoming marriage in the coming year. I took a sip of the tart, but sweet grape juice, remembering Mother and the girls and me working deligently picking the grapes and turning it into this tasty drink that we only drink on special occasions. Would I be planting my own grape vines this coming year?
We have always known the Longworth family. But not Avery's family that well. It is his cousins, Rebecca, Edna, Lauren, Nathan and Betsy we knew the best. They have always come to our family gatherings even though they are not really family. Our mothers were friends in school and Mrs. Longworth's family had moved away when she and Mother were about thirteen. Then when Mrs. Longworth married Dixon Longworth they moved here to Norwich. Mother was already married and living with Father outside of Norwich. Since then we have moved to our farm in East Smithville. So we aren't real close, but close enough. Avery's family lives on the other side of Norwich. I don't know what his plans are or where I will be living. This worries me as I'd like to know what I will be doing in my future.
Copyright © 2009 Kathleen G. Lupole
Updated 2016
Updated 2016
