A childless old woman reached her one-hundredth birthday alone, with no one to celebrate with. A boy shows up at her door and introduces himself as her great-grandson.Ruby was reaching an incredible landmark birthday for any human being, and nobody cared. She was turning one hundred, but there was no one to celebrate the moment with her.
Ruby was alone, just as she’d been for most of her life. From the time she was eight years old, and her father had gone off to fight in the war, Ruby had shouldered an adult’s burden.
Her mother was a frail and distant woman, and her dad had taken Ruby aside. “I’m going to need you to be a big girl, Ruby,” he’d said seriously. “You’re going to have to be very responsible and look after momma, OK?”
“OK, daddy,” Ruby had answered, and that had been the end of her childhood. Ruby became the adult in the family and looked after her mother and her four younger siblings.
She couldn’t wait for daddy to come home, so she could be a kid again, but he never did. When Ruby was twelve, the family was informed that their father had died in combat.
Daddy was never coming home. Mom fell apart, screaming and crying so much that she frightened the other children dreadfully. A doctor had to come and give mom an injection, and then she was quiet and vague again.
When you least expect it, life sends you a blessing.
The pension mom got from the Government was very small, and she wasn’t able to work. Ruby gave up school and took a job at a nearby shop that sold fabric, threads, buttons, and ribbons — anything you’d need to make clothes in those hard times.
Ruby was bright and energetic, and she soon became an asset to the woman who owned the haberdashery, Mrs. Dorris. Mrs. Dorris was a war widow, just like mom, and she was kind to Ruby in her way.
She’d sometimes give Ruby off-cuts from the prettiest prints and bits of colorful ribbons so she could make herself little shift dresses. Ruby often used the fabric on her siblings, and on her mom…CONTINUE READING