You Just Never Know

No one I knew had ever seen him.  My father had never seen him.  So far as we knew, it was a total mystery.  Nell had met him at a parade, on the square in Tyler, in 1914.  She was 19, and we're not sure how old Will was, but probably around 23.  It was a short romance, followed by a short marriage, and my dad was born New Years Eve, 1915.  Soon after, Will was on the road again, never to return.

But the story was so sketchy, I sometimes wondered if Will had ever really been.  So many loose ends.  Then a single picture emerged from a huge stack of photos in presentation folders, one I'd never seen before.  I didn't recognize most of the people, except for one.   There was Nell, around 20, on a hilltop near Bullard, standing in front of an old tree, black hair blowing in the wind, beautiful.  As I enlarged a copy on the computer, I could not resist looking:  she wore a wedding ring.

Never talked about Will, never talked about marriage, never talked about any of the difficulties she faced all her life.  She was a "grass widow", no husband, but no real divorce - - he was just gone, in the times when long distance travel was usually one-way, and folks rarely returned once they left.

She worked in the school cafeteria, sold Christmas cards, raised vegetables and chickens, crafted quilts, was big on barter in the Depression.  Too dignified to complain, she was the Life-time Sunday School Secretary, and the Communion Steward for her church, steady and faithful.  And she was deeper in poverty than her grandson ever knew!

But, somehow, knowing from that ring that there was once a marriage put an important piece into the puzzle.  It still wasn't complete, but it fit.  Sister Laura Fellman went to Tarleton College as the women's PE director, Sister Sallie Halden went to Houston, part author, part socialite, and Nell stayed in the old family house.  Bad roof, no paint, worn down, but hers.

Every New Years Eve I think about her and wonder at her quiet dignity in the midst of difficulties.  And I thank God for the reminder, through her, that we are always surrounded by people living through difficulty, upheld by grace, and more than we know.  But God knows.  And God takes care of it.

And all is well.  And I tell myself:  Happy New Year......... it's all going to be all right.