Love Letters From the Grave(60)
On the weekends that they didn't use their cabin, they did their best to make sure it was used by relatives and friends. Betty, Muriel, and Muriel's second husband, Dr. Harold Manson (Harry). They had married before Charlie's and Molly's first wedding anniversary, and used the cabin frequently, usually taking the children with them. Johnny and his wife used it often, too, and Amos, Annie and the boys were regular visitors. Even George used it several times, after turning down many earlier invitations.
Things went well with their work at the factory. Molly received two more raises before she retired, while Charlie was promoted from Assistant Manager to Manager of the factory's tool and supply rooms, and procurement department. Their incomes continued to increase up to their retirements, and even after Muriel remarried, since they were used to living without Charlie’s income, they opened a savings account for each of the children’s college or professional education.
They saw Charlie's children several times a month, often having them out to the "farm". Because of the size of the house and the many things to do outside, they very much loved visiting their parents. A year after the construction and remodeling were complete, they had a very nice playground constructed between the barn and the garden, and with quite a menagerie of animals running around, the kids loved it.
The years passed. The children grew. Their love intensified. After a few more years, they were invited by their beloved friends at The Amish House to join in for the wedding of the young Amish folk they had watched grow up, and it was something they were privileged to share many times over.
Their cup of love was truly full, so much so that it completely ran over, and they remembered, over and over, how blessed they were, and how they should let those blessings be shared with others.
Chapter 20
In God’s Garden
I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
and He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.
In the Garden, C. Austin Miles
They continued to remodel and rebuild things over the years, including the lake house which they extended comprehensively with the help of Paul, their Amish builder. Molly retired after twenty years at the factory, followed by Charlie at the age of fifty-eight, with both in fine health that they attributed to robust lifestyles on the mini-farm and the lake, and their love for God’s creation, all of God’s creatures, and especially each other.
By the time the happy couple completed their lake home, they had also lived on their mini-farm for twenty-five years. The young fruit trees they’d planted in their orchard were five years old and beginning to bear harvestable fruit. In another five years, the trees would reach maximum production. Their orchard, like their vegetable garden, was not just highly productive – it was a beautiful sight to see. Over the years, they had increased the fertility and productivity of the farm’s soil, especially in the vegetable garden, through heavy annual additions of compost and manure, and they tended the farm’s plants with expert management and tender loving care.
For the garden, they did their best to procure seeds and plantings of the best, tastiest varieties of vegetables available, maintaining their health by using natural, biological control of pestiferous insects and diseases, taking advantage across the farm of the free advice provided by the US Department of Agriculture and services provided by the University Agricultural Extension offices.
Eventually, they began working with several garden clubs and organized share-cropping, which enabled them to divide their time between the farm and lake house, as they could leave it in the care of Frank and June, their dear neighbors, friends and share-cropping partners.
In essence, Charlie was applying all the 4-H principles that he had been learning at the age of fifteen – only now he was free and doing it all on his own farm, sharing the experience with the love of his life.
Of course, as the years flew by they witnessed their share of tragedy and loss. Muriel’s brother was lost in action in Vietnam, and because their father was still in prison he wasn’t allowed to attend the memorial service. Cecil was eventually to die in prison, having never been paroled. Betty, Muriel’s mother, died in her seventies, as did Maureen, Molly’s beloved sister. Tommy died during the eighties of a disease which reduced him to skin and bone and from which he appeared to have just wasted away, and then at the age of 79, Molly and Charlie lost their dear friend - and Molly’s former husband - George. Jesse suffered a stroke and was incapacitated so that he needed a great deal of Molly’s attention.
Their friends began to disappear around them, but they always had each other and, of course, their loving children who adored them throughout, even calling Molly ‘Aunt Molly’ as encouraged by Muriel, and then eventually their children’s children, and the offspring of their friends and neighbors who they gathered around them like crops growing toward sunlight. They put all their kids through college, apart from Charlie III who chose the armed forces instead, and then they set about assisting their grandchildren, not just with financial means, but by shining like a great light ahead of them, tilling the land with hoes for excellent exercise, sharing the bounties of their growing programs, inviting them to the lake house and the mini-farm to share in all they’d achieved.