Revelation of Hearts
By
Rikki M. Dyson
Revised Version
Copyright @ June 2012
All rights reserved
First Edition
This book or parts thereof are copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, Scanned , or distributed in any printed or electronic form for any commercial or noncommercial use without permission from the author, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Copyright Page
This is a work of fiction names, characters, places, and incidents either is the author’s imagination or is used factiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental, the publisher does not have any control or assume any responsibly to any third party or content. Any trademarks mention here will be used in a descriptive manner.
Book three of Trilogy | Cover by Cora Graphics
Acknowledgements | I want to thank Michelle and Scott Chile for sharing their knowledge of Gulf Stream Jets. Mary Bostick R.N. for her medical advice, C.M. Doporto and my editor Carrie Scruggs and Wilma Wood for their invaluable help for without, I would still be floundering. Also my two dear friends Patti Kissel and Jess Burchell for their support and encouragement.
Table of Contents
Chapter-7-Jessica in Love Chapter-51-Gramps and Grandy’s Visit
Chapter-9- Celebration Chapter-53-The Aftermath | Chapter-10-Jonathan and Lora Chapter-54-Visitors | Chapter-11-Mr. Chen Chapter-55-Chirstmas | Chapter-12-Death of Grandparents Chapter-56-The Home Coming | Chapter-13-Stacey Leighanne Scott Chapter-57-The Enlightenment
Chapter-15-Getting acquainted & Reception Chapter-59-Hope Springs Eternal
Prologue | Lora Beth Flemming was sitting at her dressing table applying her make up. Today is the wedding day of her great-niece, Stacey Scott. As Lora looked in the mirror, she closed her eyes, bowed her head and thought, god I hate weddings, and I hate the month of June. As hard as she fought the memories they still wormed their way in somehow. Everyone said, time heals the pain, but Lora knew it just wasn’t so. It had been thirty-seven years, and it still hurt like hell. The hurt and memories seemed as fresh today as they did back then. Lora Beth and Michael were to be married on June twentieth on her twenty-first birthday. God in heaven knows I love Stacey, and if the truth were known, she’s my favorite great-niece, just as her mother, Jessica, is my favorite niece. I can’t count the times people have mistaken Jessie and I for mother and daughter or sometimes for sisters. I’m sure it’s our red hair and green eyes that causes the resemblance. Lora raised her head and looked into the mirror as the past came flooding back.
Chapter-1 | Carswell A.F.B. Hospital
Wales, England-nineteen-twenty-five
Chapter-4 | Lost loves
This is a work of fiction names, characters, places, and incidents either is the author’s imagination or is used factiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental, the publisher does not have any control or assume any responsibly to any third party or content. Any trademarks mention here will be used in a descriptive manner.
Book three of Trilogy
Cover by Cora Graphics
Acknowledgements
I want to thank Michelle and Scott Chile for sharing their knowledge of Gulf Stream Jets. Mary Bostick R.N. for her medical advice, C.M. Doporto and my editor Carrie Scruggs and Wilma Wood for their invaluable help for without, I would still be floundering. Also my two dear friends Patti Kissel and Jess Burchell for their support and encouragement.
Prologue
Chapter-1-Carswell A.F.B. Hospital Chapter-45-The Accident
Chapter-2-Leeds England nineteen-twenty-five Chapter-46-Matthew Grant
Chapter-3-Captain Michael Patterson Chapter-47-Precautions
Chapter-4-Lost Loves Chapter-48-Godparents
Chapter-5-Memorial Service Chapter-49-Granddaughters
Chapter-6-Doctor Jonathan McKay Chapter-50-Summer two Thousand Four
Chapter-7-Jessica in Love Chapter-51-Gramps and Grandy’s Visit
Chapter-8-Dubble SS Ranch Chapter-52-Country Legends Living & Dead
Chapter-9- Celebration Chapter-53-The Aftermath
Chapter-10-Jonathan and Lora Chapter-54-Visitors
Chapter-11-Mr. Chen Chapter-55-Chirstmas
Chapter-12-Death of Grandparents Chapter-56-The Home Coming
Chapter-13-Stacey Leighanne Scott Chapter-57-The Enlightenment
Chapter-14-Sir Richard Heath Chapter-58-To Error is Human, to Forgive is Devine
Chapter-15-Getting acquainted & Reception Chapter-59-Hope Springs Eternal
Chapter-16-Truck Stop Ruffians Chapter-60- A New Baby
Chapter-17-Trip to Rawhide Chapter-61-Mr. Chen arrives
Chapter-18-Pioneer Community Hospital Chapter-62-Afternoon Out
Chapter-19-Salado and Galveston Chapter-63-He loves me, he loves me not
Chapter-20-Hearts in a Quandary Chapter-64-Texas
Chapter-21-Happiness at Last Chapter-65-Return to England
Chapter-22-Richard’s Family Chapter-66-The Riviera
Chapter-23-Friends and Family Chapter-67-Secerts
Chapter-24-Ancestors Chapter-68-Friendships
Chapter-25-Introduction Party Chapter-69-Challenges
Chapter-26-Trip to York Chapter-70-Terror Stricken
Chapter-27-Professor Ethan Howard Chapter-71-House Hunting
Chapter-28-If at first you don’t succeed Chapter-72-Miles Strayhorn
Chapter-29-Leona Fitz-William Chapter-73-Life Changes
Chapter-30-A Window to the Past Chapter-74-Bittersweet
Chapter-31-Connecting All the Dots Chapter-75-Vacations
Chapter-32-The Green-eyed Monster Chapter-76-Happy Parents
Chapter-33-Temper-Temper Chapter-77-Emergency
Chapter-34-Maxwell House Chapter-78-A Secure Family
Chapter-35-The Announcement
Chapter-36-Memories of Mr. Chen
Chapter-37-The Athletic Club
Chapter-38-The Holidays
Chapter-39-Texas
Chapter-40-The Ranch
Chapter-41-Friends
Chapter-42-A Troubled Mind
Chapter-43-The Inheritance
Chapter-44-A Double Surprise
Prologue
Lora Beth Flemming was sitting at her dressing table applying her make up. Today is the wedding day of her great-niece, Stacey Scott. As Lora looked in the mirror, she closed her eyes, bowed her head and thought, god I hate weddings, and I hate the month of June. As hard as she fought the memories they still wormed their way in somehow. Everyone said, time heals the pain, but Lora knew it just wasn’t so. It had been thirty-seven years, and it still hurt like hell. The hurt and memories seemed as fresh today as they did back then. Lora Beth and Michael were to be married on June twentieth on her twenty-first birthday. God in heaven knows I love Stacey, and if the truth were known, she’s my favorite great-niece, just as her mother, Jessica, is my favorite niece. I can’t count the times people have mistaken Jessie and I for mother and daughter or sometimes for sisters. I’m sure it’s our red hair and green eyes that causes the resemblance. Lora raised her head and looked into the mirror as the past came flooding back.
Chapter-1
Carswell A.F.B. Hospital
Lora Beth Flemming had just graduated nursing school at Baylor hospital in Dallas. There were hospital job listings on the billboard. A classmate, Doroth
y Wells and Lora were looking at the same opening. Carswell Air Force base was hiring civilian nurses. Lora and Dorothy drove over and they filled out the applications and then waited. Lora went to church and prayed diligently. Lora Beth had lived in Dallas all of her life, in her parents house. She loved her mom and dad, they were good and loving parents, but she longed to be free and independent. Her two older brothers, Bradley and Douglas, had always had more freedom than she was allowed.
Carswell, Air Force base was just northwest of Fort Worth and only thirty-seven miles separated Dallas and Fort Worth. Lora felt sure her parents would have few objections about her working there. It would be close enough for them to check on her. Two weeks later, her prayers were answered. Dorothy and she both had been hired. They were to start the first of the month. Lora’s dad helped her to buy an old used car. It wasn’t grand, but it was dependable and would get her back and forth. She and Dorothy found a two bedroom furnished apartment in River Oaks, not far from the base. Lora had been working at the hospital a few weeks, when Michael was admitted for an emergency appendectomy. They brought him from recovery to her ward. He was still groggy from the anesthesia. As Lora was adjusting his I.V, he reached out, took her hand and said, “Lord, did I die and go to heaven? I see an angel.”
Lora quickly removed her hand from his as she blushed. Lora hated that she blushed so easily, especially with her having copper red hair.
“What’s your name gorgeous?” Captain Patterson asked.
“Nurse to you, Captain Patterson,” Lora said, smiling sweetly. The guys in the ward got a big kick out of that.
Lora’s shift was from seven a.m. to three p.m. so she didn’t see Captain Patterson again, until the next morning. The ward had finished breakfast and the staff was taking bath pans of hot water to the patients who were unable to go to the showers. Lora had delivered bath water to three patients, then to Captain Patterson. She sat the pan of water on his table and pulling his curtains when he said, “Aren’t you going to bathe me Nurse Flemming?” “In your dreams, Captain,” Lora said as she shook her head.
“I dreamed about you last night,” he said. “I took the pins from that red hair of yours and let it fall to your shoulders.”
Lora quickly finished pulling the curtain and then turned with a smile and said as she left the ward, “He must be a Yankee; he sure is full of himself.”
About an hour later, Nurse Flemming was doing her medication rounds. When she came to the captain, she said, “This nice corpsman is gonna’ help you out of bed and take you for a little walk.” She showed him the hypodermic syringe and said, “This will help you along.”
“No thank you pretty lady, I’ll go cold turkey,” he said as he looked at the needle.
“Don’t tell me now you being a big brave Captain and all that you’re scared of a little ole’ needle?” Nurse Flemming said in a voice sweet as pie. In a not so sweet voice, she said, “Flip it over captain, this isn’t up for debate.” She pulled his pajamas down about two inches, rubbed his hip with an alcohol pad and gave him the injection. He watched her the entire time. When she finished and walking away, he said, “Damn my soul, but I do love a bossy woman.”
Lora was kept busy, but she did find herself looking for excuses to go to ward B. She noticed during visiting hours, that Captain Patterson had an abundance of visitors, mostly females. The next day was Lora’s day off and she drove to Dallas to visit her parents. Her father is a pharmacist and they own and run a small neighborhood drug store. Lora had worked and helped out in that drug store most of her life. The drug store consisted of a soda fountain with stools up front. Three booths on the side with the pharmacy in the rear. There were shelves through the center where they stocked and sold across the counter pharmaceutical and medical aides, notions for men and women, baby products, small gift items and greeting cards.
Lora’s parents were good loving parents, but a bit over protective. Winston and Mary Beth Flemming were very proud of their three children. They thought nothing of mortgaging their home to send their two sons, Bradley and Douglas to medical school. Back in Leeds, England, it had been Winston Flemming’s dream to become a doctor. It had been his father’s dream for his son also, but we never know what fate has in store.
Chapter-2
Leeds, England-nineteen-twenty-five.
Winston Flemming went to university for two years, but at age nineteen, his father died. Winston had to quit college to support his mother and younger sister. He had two older brothers who had died in World War 1.Winston’s father owned a dray business, so after his death Winston took over the business to support the family. In nineteen-twenty-three, Winston’s sister, Sarah, married and moved to Chatham, England. For some years, Winston’s mother had not been well and in March nineteen-twenty-five, she died.
Winston, with his sister’s blessing sold the business and their cottage. After Sarah took what she wanted, Winston packed two large trunks, bought a one-way train ticket to Liverpool, England. At the port, he bought a second-class ticket on the first ship sailing for America. It was the Morning Star, bound for Galveston, Texas. Winston knew little of Texas and less of Galveston, however, it was in America and that was all that mattered to him. The trip took two weeks. He was seasick the first three days out. On the fourth day, he dragged himself on deck for fresh air and food. The dining room was crowded. With tray in hand, he was looking for a table and a place to sit. He saw young woman sitting alone and asked, “May I share your table miss?” She didn’t speak, but nodded her head, “Yes.”
Wales, England-nineteen-twenty-five
Mary Beth Penwell was almost nineteen. She was very shy as well as a very pretty girl with copper red hair and green eyes. Mary Beth was from a coal mining community in Wales. Her father died when she was fourteen. Mary Beth had to quit school and go to work to support her mother and herself. She had two older brothers that worked in the mines also. They both were married with families, so they were no help; they did well to take care of their own.
For four years, Mary Beth had worked as a maid for a wealthy family. She dreamed of being free some day and going to live in America. The very last thing she wanted to do was marry a coal miner. She wanted as far away from that kind of life as possible.
In April nineteen-twenty-five, Mary Beth Penwell’s mother died. Mary Beth sold their cottage and packed one large trunk, then bought a train ticket to Liverpool, England. She asked the shipmaster, “What is the next ship to America?”
“The Morning Star, bound for Galveston, Texas,” he told her.
Mary Beth had heard a little of Texas, but nothing of Galveston. She had long dreamed of going to America. So if this Galveston was in America that was good enough for her.
For one week, Winston and Mary Beth shared a table. He talked and she listened but she talked very little. Next, they shared walks on deck. By the time, they reached the Texas coast they knew they were in love. They asked the ship’s captain to marry them. On the fourteenth of June, nineteen-twenty-five, aboard the Morning Star, Winston Jordan Flemming, born the twenty-first of February, nineteen-hundred-two in Leeds, England married Mary Beth Penwell, born the fifteenth of May, nineteen-hundred-six in Wales, England.
Winston and Mary Beth lived in Galveston for one year. The summer of nineteen-twenty-six, a hurricane hit, and tore up a good part of Galveston. Winston hated the sea. He told Mary Beth, “I want us to move north, as far away from the sea as our money will take us.”
Winston bought two tickets to Dallas. Once again, all they had left was their three trunks, therefore Winston and Mary Beth, with their three trunks, headed north to Dallas. In Dallas, Winston found a job at Sears-Roebuck in shipping and receiving. Mary Beth went to work at the peanut butter factory. Starting over was hard, but they managed. The winter of nineteen-thirty, on December, thirteenth Bradley Jordon Flemming was born. Winston knew his dream of becoming a doctor was out of the question. The next best thing was to become a pharmacist. For two years, he apprenticed to get h
is license. Winston worked as an assistant pharmacist to Mr. William Wadsworth at Walgreen’s drug store for eight years.
Winston and Mary Beth now had two sons. Winston Douglas was born on November, tenth nineteen-thirty-three. Two years later, their neighborhood drug store came up for sale. With a loan from the bank, they purchased the drug store and Winston and Mary Beth ran it together. They made a playroom in back for the boys. Bradley was in school most of the day, so there was just two-year-old Douglas to watch over. The Flemmings were two hard working people. They were very content with their lives. They felt they were living the American dream.
To their happiness and surprise, a red haired, green-eyed daughter was born on June twentieth nineteen-forty-four. Winston felt he was surely blessed with a beautiful loving wife and three wonderful children. In nineteen-forty-seven, Bradley won a scholarship to Rice University in Houston. Four years later, Douglas won his scholarship to Tulane University in Louisiana. When both of their sons wanted to go to medical school, Winston and Mary Beth thought it no hardship to mortgage their home to pay their tuition. When Lora Beth graduated high school and wanted to go to nursing school, Winston made sure the funds were available. Winston and Mary Beth were very proud of their children. They watched their dreams come true vicariously through their children.
Chapter- 3
Captain Michael Patterson
When Lora walked into the ward the next morning, Captain Patterson asked, “Nurse Flemming, where were you yesterday? I missed you.”
“Captain, do you see chevrons on my sleeves?” Nurse Flemming asked.