Amazing Grace – Acknowledgements and Introduction

  Acknowledgments   Thanks to Kristine Rosemary for “ironing” the text. Any reader who finds the book readable and enjoyable ought to thank Kristine also. Thanks to Donna for hauling Kristine and me out of the pit of grammatical and copy errors....

Chapter One: The Face at The Window

I am awake and I am cold. In the first few moments of awareness, this is all I know.  Waves of shudders pass through me, and in a single spasm of deep shock, I open my eyes.  I don’t know where I am or who I am.  The surroundings are unfamiliar and something is...

Chapter Two: The Lost Boys and Girls

Families are somewhat like planetary systems. In a certain terrain and atmosphere, the members develop and evolve based on the resources available. It seems to me, after all these years, that it’s impossible to understand the deep inner nature of anyone without...

Chapter Four: Dead Babies and Iron Skillets

Grandpa decided to arrange for Tom and me to stay with Aunt and Uncle, my mother’s brother and his wife, in Sarasota.  In this way, Mother could keep working on legal problems and we would be “safe”. My aunt put us back in school, I contracted...

Chapter Five: Jane Eyre Redux

Mother’s new religious zeal was fine with me.  I loved Sunday school, the stories the teacher told with illustrations on the felt board, and singing, and just the whole feeling.  I was reading the Bible (in bits and pieces), and God was taking care of us now for...