And the greatest of these is Love
Chapter 27
Page 80
Sunday was the beginning of Ruth's new world. She went to the Community Church with Jake and Violet. Their presence caused quite a stir, but Pastor Canfield handled it perfectly with care. He asked them all to come up to the altar by him. Ruth was hesitant at first as she was now going to be known as Jake's sister after ten years of living in hiding, but Minnie Canfield came to her, holding her hand and stayed with her.
Minnie whispered, "It's all right Ruth. These are good folk and you've nothing to fear from anyone here."
"Friends, I want you to give a warm welcome to Jake's sister, Ruth Taylor." The congregation burst into applause. Ruth blushed and instinctively put her head down. "She'll be staying here in Hope Valley with her brother and sister-in-law."
Pastor Joseph continued, "You all know that Jake was assaulted by men at work and he's been home recuperating for several weeks now. The good news from Sargent Grant is those scoundrels have been found, arrested, and are in process of being charged for a number of crimes." With that Nathan nodded affirmatively and smiled. There were a few hearty cheers from the congregation.
Jake spoke, "I want to personally thank all who helped search for those men. You took time away from your home to help find them, and I want you to know that I am very grateful for all the effort and help with the search. It means a lot to me that you have my back. Thank you."
"You bet Jake, we're a family here in Hope Valley. Don't you forget it," Henry added.
Violet joined in, "I too, want to thank those who came to Jake's aid at work and helped him. He was severely injured and your action meant a lot to both of us," she said looking around at all the faces. "I also thank our town doctors for treating Jake and taking him to the hospital in Clearwater for tests and x-rays. We found out directly that Hope Valley has the best doctors in town and I for one am very lucky to work for them."
Pastor Joseph thanked them for coming to the front and then when he sent them back their pew, he nodded at Dee to start the choir singing, 'What a friend we have in Jesus.' Pastor then led the congregation in praise for Jake's healing and for finding the perpetrators, and for Jake and Ruth being reunited. He continued on with prayer for Emily Grant's heart condition to be on the mend, for healthy pregnancies of Christy O'Neill, Clara Flynn, Elsa Andersson, and now Dee Grant and for rain for the farmers.
They read from the Gospel of St. John Chapter 15, What greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.
His sermon focused on those that helped look for the men who assaulted Jake, "Jesus Christ showed what perfect love is by his death on the cross for us, but beyond accepting this sacrifice for our sins, we are called to love one another in the same way." He went on to say, "Laying down one's life can mean literally dying for someone, but starts with simply dying to self for someone, for instance in giving one's possessions to someone who needs them and you my friends have shown that over and over again."
After the service was over, several folks went up to Ruth and welcomed her and introduced thems elves.
Molly suggested, "You must come to the ladies' Bible Study on Tuesday with Violet. We'll be planning the second annual Family Festival too. It'll be fun!"
Dottie too invited Ruth to her Apparel shop to see the new summer clothes, "I know that Henry will be so glad to have Jake return to work, so I just want to invite you to spend some of your free time to enjoy yourself. We have some new dresses and skirts that you might like."
Ruth was surrounded by so many ladies that it caught Minnie's eye so she found her way over to Ruth's side to rescue her knowing she was still very shy. Putting her arm in Ruth's she excused her and walked her over to Mayor Fiona who was with Dr. Scholl.
"Ruth, this is our Mayor Fiona Miller and her fiance Dr. James Scholl."
"Welcome Ruth," Fiona smiled warmly, "it's so nice to meet you!"
"Yes, indeed Ruth," James added, "I'm sure you'll love it here."
"Nice to meet you both," Ruth returned.
"Listen, Ruth, I offer anyone new to town a complimentary spa day at my shop Nichols and Dimes. So, stop over and make an appointment for a facial, hair style, and manicure, my treat!"
"Oh, wow! That would be great. I would love to get a new hair style! Thank you." Ruth was thrilled.
Jake and Violet were getting the same friendly treatment. By the time they were ready to leave, they decided to take a walk around the pond and just take their time walking home. Besides, it was a delightful sunny day and they felt like it was a whole new world.
Page 81
Nathan and Dee took Christopher with them to help move the Gleixners into their new home, leaving Allie home to be with her Oma and grandpa. Dee felt better knowing that Allie was home with them until they knew that Emily was feeling stronger. Nathan agreed that Allie could have one or two friends over so she wouldn't be alone all day, since they didn't know how long they'd be.
Nathan was glad to see Walter, as it had been since Christmas when the family had last gathered. Walter had gone to Edmonton Medical School for his medical education. Having trained as a medic in the War, he found that this seemed to be an occupation he wanted to further pursue. Just like Lana Peterson had followed through for further study in nursing after being an assistant helping the nurses in the war.
"How are things going?" Nathan asked.
"Good, it was fairly a fast sell of the farm for mom and dad. Bittersweet though. We all grew up there and closing the door of the farmhouse for the last time, nearly broke dad's heart," Walter answered.
"I bet. The same when we brought Ma here to our home, she hated leaving. I don't blame them. The farms carry a lot of memories for both of our families."
Dee hugged her folks and Walter. "Look, at little bun," Bertie Gleixner smiled as she held out her arms to take her grandson in her arms.
"Watch mom, he's a wiggler. He wants to crawl and is trying to get down," Dee laughed.
Bertie was thrilled to see her family again. Ted put down some boxes and walked over to shake hands with Nathan, hug his daughter, and grab Christopher up to swing him around. "There's my little man!"
"Where's Allie?" Bertie asked.
"She's home keeping my folks company. Ma had a scare last week. She has a weak heart and is so busy taking care of everyone else that she didn't take good enough care of herself, so she's resting this week," Nathan explained.
"She'll be all right though, won't she?"
"Yes, she's not giving up, she's a strong woman," Dee smiled, "so what do you want me to do first?"
"Your sister, Dorothy and family, our on their way with a truck full of furniture. Now, I don't want you lifting anything heavy, Dee, being in the family way now. Just wait until the boxes are inside and you can help me unpack and put away," Bertie instructed.
Nathan, Walter, and Ted were all busy carrying in boxes when Dorothy and her family arrived. Backing up the truck as close to the front door, George got out of the truck with Robert and Roberta. The children went running over to see everyone.
"Auntie Dee, Uncle Nathan!" Robert said as he gave them both hugs.
Roberta ran to her grandparents gave them both big hugs and then ran straight over to Dee and Nathan too. "Can I see baby Christopher?" she asked.
Dee squatted down holding her son and let Roberta check out his fingers and toes, "He's so tiny! Can I hold him?"
"Not yet honey, he's too squirmy. But look, he's reaching for you. Why don't you give him a hug?" Dee laughed.
After the children got acquainted, the men were starting to carry the furniture inside, but they were first surprised to see Andy and Gunther show up.
"Wow, men I had no idea you were coming!" Nathan was happily surprised, then he asked, "who's keeping an eye on things?"
"Bill," both Andy and Gunther answered at the same time.
Nathan laughed, and shook his head, "Ask a dumb question, get a dumb answer. Well, thanks! Are you ready to be put to work?"
It didn't take long to bring in the furniture and set up the home for the Gleixners. Dorothy and Dee worked together to help their mom, Bertie put away the kitchen dishes and utensils, clothes, knick-knacks, making up the bed, and emptying most of the boxes. There was still plenty of items to keep their parents busy when they called it a day, but they got a lot done.
Dorothy had brought a big pot of stew and loafs of homemade bread and a chunk of butter, so after a few hours, she called the family together when it was hot and ready.
Ted Gleixner asked that they wait before they dived in to eat. "I just have to say that we truly appreciate all of your help, especially you two, Gunther and Andy for pitching in, it's a great feeling to know we're now closer to our family and have already made two new friends!"
After Ted led the grace they all sat around the dining table and ate, laughing at how Christopher was grabbing food off of Dee's plate.
"I think you passed the taste test Aunt Dorothy, Christopher gave you the award for best stew!" Nathan chuckled.
Robert and Roberta asked to take one more run around outside before they headed home to Brookfield. Nathan asked if Constable Gabe and Miss Lillian had said anymore about their wedding, but no new word.
As the family was getting ready to part, the sisters shared their delight in knowing that their mother and father were now both close by where they could visit much more often and keep an eye on them.
"Yes, and we will be waiting for the new little bun to arrive and not have to wait so long to see him," Ted grinned.
"Or her!" Bertie smiled up at her husband.
Page 82
The Chickadees and all the ladies were gathered together at Minnie's Cafe. It was definitely getting more and more crowded even with the addition that was added on. Cooper was delegated to help move the tables as close to the kitchen as possible because today was very important. Everyone was there to start planning the second annual Hope Valley Family Festival!
Mayor Fiona had asked that all the womenfolk that could possibly make it to attend. After surveying the group, Fiona suggested that their next meeting would be at Billees, since it had more space.
Minnie announced that they were not going to study the Bible today, but they would pray for guidance, help, and good weather for their festival. Then Minnie introduced Ruth who was there with Violet. "Please welcome our newest friend to our ladies' group, this is Ruth Taylor whom some of you met at the church service Sunday. She is Violet's sister-in-law." Minnie spoke once more, "more good news is that Jake is well enough to return to work this week. Praise God!" Everyone clapped.
"Ladies, I thank you all for attending this meeting," Fiona began, "as you know we already had our kickoff meeting a month ago. Margaret took down names of those who wanted to help and we had volunteers offer to chair different activities. Today, we have reports to hear from these various activities. First, we need to hear from Rosemary concerning the parade which will be new this year."
Rosemary jumped up and bowed to the group, "Yes indeed, I too thank you for coming," she smiled graciously, "of course you all know that my generous husband, Lee, has made arrangements for the transfer of our new fire pumper and ambulance via the railroad," she paused for applause, but in the silence she soon continued, "Henry will be driving the fire pumper followed by Lee who will be driving the ambulance. I will see to it that we have big red bows on them!"
"These vehicles are exactly what our town needs!" Fiona thanked Rosemary. "It's Christy's turn now to continue with the parade happenings. It was her idea to have the parade in the first place, so please go ahead, Christy."
With that Rosemary knew her time in the spotlight was over and walked back begrudgingly to her seat. Christy was starting to show her bump especially when one saw her profile. "Hello ladies, I've asked Clara to help me with the parade so that's why Clara is here with me." Clara and Christy were both pregnant and due around the same time. A few hadn't noticed before, so were surprised.
"We have names of children who are delighted to be in the parade and will be decorating their bicycles. Wait until you see some of their ideas!" Clara said.
"There will be tractors pulling trailers with different decorations. We also have the Boy Scouts, the Girl Guides, School Band, and the Hope Valley Stallions Baseball team," Christy said.
Dee spoke up excitedly, "I think this year we will have current and retired Mounties from the local area coming for the parade."
"Oh wonderful!" Fiona exclaimed, "that will really add some class to our parade!"
"The Hopefuls will also see that we get a trailer for our very first Queen and King of Hope Valley!" Clara announced, as the ladies all clapped, "this will be so much fun!"
Flo raised her hand, "How do we decide who those two will be?"
Fiona acknowledged her question, "Ladies, this is our first time. We need to decide how this will go. Perhaps, we could have criteria that needs to be fulfilled, or maybe we could just put names in a bucket and pull out one man and one woman? What do you think?"
With that much discussion began with all sorts of ideas being tossed around. Does one have to volunteer? Or can one be nominated? Can married people participate? What is the minimum age? Who will be the one to oversee it?
After much deliberation, it was decided that anyone over the age of 18 could enter either by nomination which that person would accept, or someone could volunteer themselves. It didn't matter if they were married or single. If they had a talent they wanted to present, they could but not necessary, and it would have to be next Saturday when everyone would place their name of their choice in a bucket for women and a bucket for men. Lastly, figuring he would have no relative in the contest, they nominated Fr. Ricardo for picking out the winners of the title of Queen and King.
"Well ladies, we did it. Our first major decision!" Fiona clapped in relief, "moving on we have Molly here."
"Yes, just to let you know, back by popular demand, Bill will hosting his pig roast!" Molly cheered. "That means though, that we need lots of side dishes."
Lucianna raised her hand, "That's for me to handle. I love this and can't wait. I'll take any names and food dishes and write them down so I know we'll have enough of everything! Joyce offered to help me."
Debbie and Kathie offered right away to handle the sweet table again. "We had such wonderful desserts last year, I'm sure we'll have plenty this year too!"
"Don't forget the pie-eating contest," Teresa laughed, "I'll be happy to see we get enough pie bakers and enough pie eaters!"
"I'll bake some pies," Marge added.
"So will I," Brenda offered.
There were several discussions about games, when Jackie and Linda told everyone they had offered to run the games and had the same ideas from last year that were big hits, like the egg on a spoon race, ring toss, the 3-legged sack race, and the water and balloon toss.
Susanne and Sheri were excited to get the dunk tank ready and would collect names of volunteers. They were hoping that the coaches would offer again as the boys loved to dunk them.
Mary and Christine told Fiona they offered to run the Victrola while in Billees during dinner time. "Good idea," Fiona nodded.
That's when Kenda and Jane said they'd help decorate Billees since the Hopefuls would be busy decorating the float for the King and Queen. "Check with me, I have some things you could use," Flo suggested.
At the end of a very long and busy meeting, Dee spoke up, "I think that Nathan and Bill are planning a baseball game with the Mounties who will be here for the parade, so I'm sure there will be plenty of men from Gowen Oil and Coulter Lumber, among others, who would enjoy showing up the Mounties, so please check with your husbands and boyfriends. It should be a lot of fun!"
With that, Fiona looked at Minnie, "Whew! Well, that went well, don't you think?"