Heaven's Gate Bridge thirty

Heaven’s Gate Bridge thirty

Mr. Miller was not going to tell Frances about his early morning activities. She had assumed that he was checking on the children and the house as he sometimes did. His restlessness was usually the result of something that was on his mind from work. She was so proud of how the business was growing. In fact the business could use extra help from time to time like before holidays. But the thing that made her the proudest lady in this part of town was how the people talked about her husband. They said that he was honest and made the best suits around in these parts. Word of mouth was the best advertisement and the Miller Tailor Shop had a lot of this kind of wonderful advertisement.

Frances was sure that she was getting stronger now that the fever had begun to go down. She would let the doctor know later that she was feeling better and ask when she should next come in. Since she had a little help with house work three days a week, she could help the children with their homework more. She also wanted to plan on moving the house furniture around just before the baby came. She sometimes felt that the baby was a boy but her husband smiled as he guessed that it would be a girl. They both knew that this was the last child and hoped that everything would go as smoothly as Timothy’s birth. Of her four children, Timothy had the easiest delivery. Of course, since Mrs. Stiller had died, Frances was going to let Dr. Carson deliver the baby. There were no other midwife knowledgeable lady around and a doctor certainly had the beat medical education.

Frances walked downstairs. She smelled some coffee that had been brewed and left for her. She had tried to drink some coffee yesterday and it seemed to bother her so she decided to pass today. Instead she got some milk out of the refrigerator and had a nice cool glass of milk. She let Buddy outside and he immediately started chasing birds and his favorite squirrel around the yard. The squirrel seemed to know how far the little dog could jump and he always stayed out of Buddy’s reach. As she closed the door, she noticed that one of her neighbors was baking bread and its smell was drifting past her house. She loved the smell of fresh bread and thought that she might try to make some bread or cookies when Mrs. Noonan was here. It might give her the opportunity to get to know her and her family a little better.

Frances wanted to look at the mail that had arrived yesterday. She was so busy with talking to Mrs. Noonan that she left a letter from her oldest brother Andrew Donald. He was older by a few years. Since he was the oldest child, their father wanted to leave the family business to him, but Andrew really wanted to go into the military service. With their father’s agreement before he died, the business went to the second child Martin. If Andrew finished his military business and did not reenlist then both boys would work together and share the profits. Their father loved plants and wanted to see someone in the family to carry on the business he loved.

Andrew was so happy with the military that he reenlisted a few times. He got some commendations and was sent to officer school. It was there that he met feisty, red-headed Jennifer Marie Cox who stole his heart. But her family forbade her to marry someone who would not keep her comfortable in the manner that she grew up in. She loved Andrew so much that she carried one piece of clothes to a friend’s house to keep for her. When she had enough of a wardrobe, she and Andrew eloped. Her family was so incensed, that they broke off all communications with her and left her without any money. Andrew promised that on his next completion of tour of duty, that he would join his brother, Martin and make the business the most profitable one in their town. As if this date, the two men were doing fairly well but not the richest men in town. Jennifer was happy with her life and kept their home and one son in fine order.

Frances remembered the previous letter from Jennifer. Jennifer had written them about two months ago and told Frances that her mother had dropped a hint through a friend that the family might want to see Jennifer and her family at the resort that they went to in the summer. The Cox family went to some place in New England and had a beautiful place in the mountains. Their house was surrounded by a few other houses. At the end of the road there was a lovely lake where all of the families shared to fish and swim in the summer time. When Jennifer was younger, she would take her paint and a canvas and paint scene after scene of nature. She loved painting and thought that nature was better than painting portraits or city scenes. The only thing that she regretted was when she eloped that she had not thought of bringing some art materials to her friend’s house. Later as an anniversary gift, Andrew bought her a set of paints and a canvas. As she cried for joy she told him that her first picture would be of any place that he would chose. His choice was of the bay and the place where he had proposed to her. He put that picture in the living room over the mantel and smiled every time he looked at it.

In this letter, Andrew’s family had decided to go on the vacation to see the Cox family. It would be their son, Ronnie’s first time to see his grandparents. Ronnie had his mother’s feisty personality. He had his father’s lovely brown hair and hazel eyes. He also had an incredible talent for athletics. In school he played a game called football. When he went on the field, all of the young girls shouted out his name and screamed when he threw a touchdown pass. He would always take off his leather helmet and be polite and wave. It seemed that Ronnie would have plenty of girls to chose from when he decided to date one seriously. For right now Ronnie was serious about good grades to get into college and football.

Frances completed reading the letter from Jennifer. There was the usual report on the new plants that the business was trying to grow and use in their business. Jennifer also mentioned that she had painted a very lovely picture of a scene with trees and two magnificent male deer with antlers. In the background was a doe and fawn. A man in the city had mentioned that he might want to buy that one or commission her to draw something for his house. Jennifer was excited that she might have a hobby that could bring in some money.

Finally the letter asked how Frances was with her pregnancy. Jennifer and Andrew had tried again to have another baby but did not have success. She felt that she might be too old to have another child or handle one if she did become pregnant. It seemed that she was happy with her family as it was and hoped that everyone would not bring up that subject any more. Frances agreed with Jennifer and closed the letter. She would let William read it later and give her something to write Jennifer in return.

As Frances was putting the letter in the hallway, she heard a knock at the door.