Ruth's Visit

Photo Source: Powerhouse Museum Collection

Ruth invited me to lunch again. I told her I could not come as I did not like to take Benjamin out in the cold weather unless I had to. Her hired man, Mr. McCleary had driven out to give me her message that she would be coming tomorrow and would bring lunch. I looked forward to the company. I hadn't seen Ruth since she came to visit when I was pregnant.  Avery was out on a freight run that was taking longer than usual. I was trying not be worried about him as I knew sometimes things happened to the wagon or the horses. He has been gone almost two weeks now.

When Ruth arrived I had just put Benjamin down for a nap. I figured we could talk and eat while he napped. I had made some maple oatmeal cookies. When someone comes to visit I like to be the one preparing the food and feel that I needed to have at least something to offer Ruth. Ruth came in with Peanut running in alongside of her. She had two large canvas bags of food from her hotel.

"Hi Rachel! How are you doing?" she said as she set her bags down on the counter.

"Oh Ruth, you did not have to bring our lunch! I could have made it." I exclaimed as I looked at the gorgeous oranges that fell out of the bag.

"I wanted to do it for you. I understand perfectly about not wanting to take your new baby out in the cold weather. I wanted to see him."

"Well, you will have to wait.........he is napping." I added as I unpacked the bags.

Ruth had outdone herself this time. She brought us a magnificent feast and what we did not eat she made me pack away for my supper. By the time Benjamin was crying for me, we were ready for him. After he ate, she held him and petted him and talked to him. I could see a sadness in her face as she looked down on him.

"I am sorry Ruth if he makes you sad." I said.

"Oh, Rachel it's not him that makes me sad. It is just that my husband died before we could have any children. I really wanted some but he was older than me, you know? Then he got sick and we never could have any. I kept hoping but it got where he couldn't even leave his bed and I knew I'd never have his child. Now I fear it is too late for me."

"It's never too late. You could meet someone new and get married again," I looked at her and could see she didn't believe that.

"Well, I did see someone I considered. But he married someone else," she looked at me straight on to see if I knew what she meant.

"Not Avery?" it had never crossed my mind that they had ever been involved or even close.

"He is the best looking man for miles around. And he is my age. So I did try to get him interested."

"He wasn't? I did not even know him before our wedding. Not really."

"He told me right off that he had plans and he needed a special wife. One that could put up with him being away and still able to raise children and run his house and farm. It sounded too tall an order for me. I did not want to give up my hotel."

"Did he tell you that if you did, he would marry you?" I was interested to know what took place in my husband's life before me.

"He was being kind. He knew I was not his kind of woman. He would talk to me and come into the hotel for a hot meal occasionally and ask me to join him. But was he interested in me? As a woman? Not even a little."

"Wouldn't you have given up your hotel for a husband?" I asked finding it hard to believe that a woman would rather run a hotel than to have a family.

"Let's put it this way. My hotel gives me a lot of freedom that a wife does not get. I own my hotel and if I had a husband it would go to him. Right now it belongs to me, but I have a trustee, a lawyer who oversees it for me as set up by my husband for me. But basically I run it and he doesn't do anything but keeps it that way so it is legal."

"I see. I guess I never understood all that legal talk."

After Ruth left I looked at my son and felt thankful that my life is turning out this way. I have to admit I was scared when I first married Avery and was alone with him those first few days. Now I treasure those days. I think about him all the time and wish he was home. Ruth had a husband too and she never thought he'd die when she married him. So she had been interested in Avery. I imagine there were many young women who had been interested in him. I didn't even know about him then. I was not even thinking about marriage or anything like that. Now my life is all changed. Babies, horses, housework, growing and preparing food, sewing, so many jobs needing my attention.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole
Updated 2016

Getting Closer To Becoming A Mother

I watched as Avery lifted some pumpkins that he had found left in the garden onto the porch. They were big and beautiful, bright orange. Some remembrances of fall give me a feeling of good feeling. I grew them and all the food in our pantry and root cellar with hardly any help at all. In the fall Avery was gone on a couple of long freight runs and my sister had stayed with me. We harvested most of the pumpkins. Some are in the root cellar and some we cut up and dried. I had made lots of pumpkin puddings and found I could make it as good as Mother did. My cooking skills are something I am proud of and I can tell that Avery is too. He likes to have someone stop in to eat supper with us. Though he has been careful about doing that now that I am almost to the end of my pregnancy.

I am just waiting for my baby to be born now. I am tired and feel big. Avery has been staying around home. Mostly doing jobs that are only a day or two away at the most. I know I am holding him back. Ruth drove out in her buggy the other day. I was ashamed of how I looked. She looks so pretty and thin. I saw Avery help her out of the buggy and for the first time I really thought about what he was seeing when he looks at me now. I just wanted to cry. Ruth came bearing baby gifts and some fresh fruit that she got from a company that transported it from down south. She said some of it had gotten ruined but she brought me 4 oranges! I was so happy to see something fresh again. Oranges, one of my favorite treats.

I invited Ruth to eat lunch with us and she accepted. "I apologize Ruth for not having something more elaborate for lunch, but I didn't know you were coming," I smiled faintly at her as I put a dish of cold chicken salad on the table.

"Oh Rachel, don't give it a second thought! Just to spend time with you, and Avery," she turned toward Avery and smiled brightly as she continued, "is treat enough for me."

"Why would anyone want to come see me when I am bigger than cow?" I felt like bawling right then.

Ruth jumped up and took the knife out of my hand and pushed me toward the chair, "Honey, you sit down. You have been working too hard as it is, and you are about to have a baby. Soon too," she picked up the dishes and set them on the table.

Avery pulled the chair out for me and said, "Ruth is right, Rachel. Sit here and I will help her finish."

I looked at him and tried to smile, "Avery, I am supposed to take care of you. I am your wife and just because I am having a baby doesn't mean I can't do my chores or serve my guest," I replied as I looked at Ruth.

Avery took my hand and Ruth's as he asked the blessing before our meal. I felt relieved for us to be all sitting down eating now. I looked at Ruth's small waist line and then down at my own, or where mine used to be. I was smaller than Ruth before I got pregnant.

Later when Ruth was gone and I was in the kitchen cleaning up, Avery came in and started helping me. "Avery, please go sit down. You don't have to help me. This is easy work and I can do it. I am fine," I looked at him trying to hold back the tears in my eyes that were threatening to spill at any moment.

He came to me and brought me close to him in his arms, he just held me tight and I started to cry softly. "Shhh, shhh, honey, there is nothing to cry about now. Everything will be okay. In a few weeks you will be all done with this and holding our baby in your arms," he soothed me.

I felt safe in his arms and just wanted to stay there. "Oh Avery, I am so scared."

"Scared of having the baby?" he asked tenderly.

"No, I think I will handle that fine. I am scared you won't love me anymore." There! I told him my deepest fear and what had been on my mind the last couple of weeks.

"Rachel! What makes you think that is possible? Nothing will ever change the way I feel about you. The baby? You think our child will make me not love you? How can you think that? I think us having a baby has brought us much closer."

"Yes, but now I am so fat," and I started crying again.

Then I heard him chuckle, "Oh baby, you will never be fat. I can tell. You are going to have this little baby and then will be back to work taking care of all of us again. Besides, I think you look enticingly good this way," he smiled that special look in his eyes.

Oh yes, Avery Longworth can be quite the charmer. He is the best husband my parents could have ever found for me. I hope my sister Esther marries a man as good as mine. With that we blew out the light and went upstairs together.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole
Photograph Kathleen G. Lupole
Updated 2016