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142 pages

English

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This is a novel about a lonely woman who thinks she has nothing to give to the world anymore. A widow whose children have all moved away from their hometown, and a retired nurse, is searching for something to give her life meaning. She doesn’t understand that in reaching out to latch key kids who go to her house every day, she is bringing some meaning and hope to the lives of young people.
When new neighbors move in across the road, her life turns around dramatically. She is not sure what she has to offer this young couple who have just moved from Aberdeen. She fears that once they make friends of their own age, they won’t have need of her anymore.
There are surprising twists and turns in this story that will intrigue and delight as events bring new friendships of all ages along the way.

Sujets

The Lewis Family

Fiction

Informations

Publié par	AuthorHouse
Date de parution	04 octobre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781665551113
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The Threads That Bind Us

A novel about a lonely woman

Pauline Lewis

AuthorHouse™
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.authorhouse.com
Phone: 833-262-8899

© 2022 Pauline Lewis. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/22/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-5112-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-5111-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022902251

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Contents
The Threads that Bind Us
Thoughts of the Old town of Stockton-on-Tees
What a Difference a Day can Make
A New Beginning
Neighbors
Stockton on Tees
The Marks and Spencer’s Habit
Settling In
Always Someone in Need
Baking Day
Knitting lesson
Joan
Saturday
Sunday
Margaret
Baking with the Girls
When Neighbors Help Each Other
A New Day
Recovering
The New Craft Room
Another Happy Day
More Cooking Lessons
Sunday Dinner
Getting Ready for Christmas
A Hard Day’s Night
Janet and Linda
A New Day, A New Life
Busy Days Getting Ready for Christmas
Friends in Motherhood
The Day the Babies Came Home
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
Boxing Day
Blow away the Cobwebs
New Year’s Eve
Celebration, Scottish Style
A New Day, a New Life
A New Romance
Where Will We Live
Celebration
A New House
Building a Community
A Scottish Wedding
There is Always Someone in Need
Sunday Dinner
Yorkshire pudding
Recipe for Yorkshire Pudding
Gravy
Cottage or Shepherd’s Pie

The Threads that Bind Us
Ruth Gordon is sitting alone at her dining room table, which has been her breakfast routine for the last forty-two years of her life. She is eating breakfast alone as usual since her husband died three years ago. She feels the need to talk to someone, anyone, about the weather, what is going on in the world, and about life in general.
The ticking of the clock in the living room echoes around the dining room and even into the kitchen. It seems to get louder with each passing moment, reminding her at once of the lack of noise in her house, the emptiness of her life and of her time left on earth ticking away. The sound seems to be robbing her of hope for a less lonely future.
As Ruth looks out of the window at the dismal weather, she feels even lonelier than ever. She knows on a day like this, overcast, with some drizzle, there will not be many people out and about. If her husband were still living, she would relish a day like today. A good excuse to spend the day in the warmth and comfort of their home watching the tele, (tele is what British people call the television), talking or listening to their favourite music. She would have cooked some of their favourite comfort foods, Cottage Pie, or Cock-a-leekie soup, her husband’s favourites. Since her husband passed away, the weather just signals another dismal, isolating, lonely day.
She clears the breakfast dishes away, wipes the table, then puts the Plush velvet tablecloth back on the table. The vase of fresh flowers goes back in the centre of the table. These flowers were picked from her garden. When she has no flowers in her garden, she treats herself and buys flowers just to have something else that is living in her home to brighten her life. She could just have her breakfast on a tray in the living room, but she likes to keep up the traditions and the routine that she has followed for the last 42 years of her life.
Standing at the kitchen window doing the washing up, she looks out onto her back garden, just staring really. She loves her garden, and it gives her comfort to see plants out there that her husband had planted. She can remember the day they planted many of them. They always took care of the garden together, both loving the way the seeds and plants would grow to maturity. She loves the Peony roses that her husband planted, and the tea roses and the ferns that she planted. They are a daily reminder of the happy years she had spent with John in their garden. All their children had learned to garden in that very same plot of ground.
As she washes the cup, saucer, egg cup, a plate, a couple of spoons, a knife and the pan she used to boil her egg, she gives a deep sigh that seems to come from the depths of her soul. She continues to stare out of the window in hope that the clouds will clear, and the sun will come out, bringing brightness to her day. Though it does not look promising.
The birds are sheltering in the nearby trees, and there is nothing out there to really focus on except her garden. She loves watching a thrush or sparrow go about their daily duties regardless of Ruth watching them. Occasionally she will see a squirrel or two, hopping and prancing around her garden, but not today.
As she dries the dishes, she thinks about how many years she has spent at this window. Too many to think about. Those special days, Christmas or Easter throughout the years come to mind. The days when one of her children came to her with a problem, and they talked while they prepared a meal together, or did the washing up. Many problems were halved standing at this sink in front of the window.
She looks at her Greenhouse and sees the green tomatoes, it will be a while before they turn red, and yellow. When they are ripened, she will take some to her friend Margaret who lives in Norton. Maybe her daughter might come and take some home with her, Elizabeth loves her home-grown tomatoes.
When she was a child, Ruth’s parents were not poor, but her mother taught her to be frugal, and to make do and mend. Growing some of their own food was part of this frugality. Ruth thinks of her father during the war, who became a good gardener out of necessity. He was too old to serve during World War 2, but he was not too old to serve as a warden. He kept a good garden and on the allotment that was not too far away he kept some hens. He had to bring the hens to his garden because of thieves. If anyone had asked him for eggs he would give them some, they didn’t need to steal. However, those thieves took all the eggs and some of the hens as well, after he had worked hard to keep the hens healthy and thriving. The thieves gave no thought for his own family. They didn’t get the cockerel though; he was one feisty bird.
Ruth thinks about her husband John who was from Aberdeen. They met when John was brought into the Middlesborough General hospital where Ruth worked as a nurse. John was in a lot of pain, and discomfort after an accident at work. She liked him as soon as she met him. She knew he was in a lot of pain; she could see it in his face and in his blood pressure. He did not complain about the pain he was in and tried his best to smile. After everything she did for him, he said, “Thank you”.
Because she knew he was trying to hide his pain, she tried even harder to make him more comfortable. John did not like it when she went off duty and was happy to see her when she came on duty again. Ruth in turn hated to leave him to the care of someone else, though she knew the nurses who worked the other shifts and knew them to be good nurses. She was always happy to see him when she went back on duty. On her days off she popped in to see how he was doing, knowing his family were so far away and could not visit him.
Ruth had a rule that she would not allow patients to court her. Once the need for a nurse had passed, or when they saw their nurse out of uniform in another setting, they did not usually have the same feelings for their nurse.
When John was being released from the hospital, he asked Ruth if she would go to the pictures with him. It did not take Ruth long to make up her mind to break her own rule and to agree to go to the pictures. She decided that going to the cinema was a good first date, because there was no forced conversation, or awkward silences.
When she arrived at the Odeon in Stockton, John was waiting for her. He bought her some sweets, her favourite Bon-bons, a little risky with all that powdered sugar. She loved the crunch of the compact powdered sugar, and the chewy and creamy caramel centre. He also bought her a drink. In the interval he bought her a choc-ice from the usherette when she came down the aisle with her tray.
After the film, John took Ruth to Pacito’s nearby for a cup of tea. He offered her something to eat as well, but she declined. She was too full after all the sweets, and too excited about the nice evening they had spent together to be able to eat anything else. Then he took her back to the nurse’s home at Middlesborough General Hospital. He was very polite, and kissed Ruth on the cheek before he watched her go inside the nurse’s home. John lived in Middlesborough and worked at ICI Wilton. He worked there until he retired.
Ruth was an only child, her parents still lived in Norton in the house she had grown up in not too far from Norton Green. She still spent her days off at her parents’ home, staying overnight when she had more than one day off at a time. To Ruth, her parent’s house was still