Post by pannt51 on Mar 10, 2012 17:04:39 GMT -5
BITTERSWEET MEMORIES OF YESTERDAY
By: Patricia A. Turner
NOTE FROM AUTHOR
Growing up in the Appalachian mountains of the beautiful state of West Virginia coal mining ran in the blood of my family. My grandfather, Lacy Carden was a coal miner as was several other members of my family, as was my husband’s father, William Turner.
It is to all those who have worked or continue work so diligently to bring out the coal buried beneath the surface that I dedicate this story to. However, there is a particular group of miners that I wish to dedicate this story too with the hopes that it will help to keep alive their memories. For these miners deaths came too soon and have left the state of West Virginia reeling. So it is with much love and respect for these courage men that I dedicate this book, “BittersweetMemories of Yesterday” to all those lost in the explosion of the Upper Big Branch Mine on April 5. 2010.
To the family and loved ones of those lost at UBBM I wish to express my deepest condolence to you and may God’s Comfort continue to be with each and every one of you as you must deal with the tragic loss of your loved ones and may the people of West Virginia and the United States never forget the sacrifice given my these heroic miners.
To twenty-nine miners of UBBM I salute you for a job well done which went above and beyond the call of duty. REST IN PEACE!
“BITTERSWEET MEMORIES OF YESTERDAY”
By: Patricia A. Turner
Down on her knees working in her flower garden on a beautiful spring day, Claire worked quietly while listening to the singing of the birds in trees scattered about her yard. There was nothing she enjoyed more than listening to the sounds of nature, which was so peaceful and soothing to the weary soul. Although, there were many times in which that peacefulness was interrupted by the sound of passing cars, some honking their horn as they drove by, or laughing children as they ran and played in the nearby park.
Pausing momentarily to wipe the sweat from her face, Claire was a lonely soul. Never married, nor having children, she had grown up there on the banks of Cedar Creek and she had been witness to much change and progress over the years. Once a thriving community when the nearby mines were in their prime, the quaint coal camp had been home to nearly one hundred families at one time.
However, as the coal had begin to play out, providing less and less jobs to the men of the community, Cedar Creek dwindled down to near non-existing as family after family had started drifting away in search of work, leaving behind those who were too old or too stubborn to let go of the way of life they had ever known. Among those who had refused to leave had been Claire Preston.
Standing her ground against others who had tried to persuade her to leave, Claire knew that her place would always be there at Cedar Creek, regardless of who else might leave seeking greener pasture. Never would she desert the graves of her parents and younger brother who lay in eternal rest on the hillside less than a mile from the house she had called home all of her life.
But her family wasn’t the only ones holding Claire there, for there was buried in that same cemetery another that she had held dear to her heart now going on thirty five years. Thirty five years had now passed since that fateful night in which her Sweet William had been lost when an explosion had ripped through the mines on a cold, snowy winter’s night.
Thirty five years! Yet for Claire, it was as if it had only been yesterday when she had been a young girl at the tender age ten years old when she had first meet William and had immediately fell head over heels in love with him. William, who had been ten years old at the time, had been walking down the railroad tracks with an old, battered case in his hand that held a banjo that had been much older than he.
Standing to her feet, Claire stretched her poor, aching back as her gaze fell on the old weeping willow tree which shadowed the place where the railroad tracks had once laid. With a sad sigh, she removed her gardening gloves and for a moment, was lost to the distant memory of yesterday, as she looked down on the diamond ring she wore on her left hand.
A constant reminder of the love which she and William once carried in their hearts for each other, tears filled Claire’s faded blue eyes, dimmed somewhat by age. For thirty five years she had worn that ring on her left hand, vowing never to remove the symbol of that love which she cherished deep within her heart. For it was a love still so strong and deep that it had not allowed her to even think about dating another, let alone getting married and having another man’s children.
As the lovely day was drawing to a close a fat ole moon rose over the remnants of the coal camp, casting the haunting shadows of a bygone era that was as real to Claire now had it had been when she had been but a small youngster growing up amid the times of prosperity that had once caused Cedar Creek to bloom.
With supper now behind her, Claire sat at the window in her bedroom, knitting needles in her hand as she crocheted a set of dresser scarves as a wedding gift for her neighbor’s granddaughter’s bridal shower. With her hands drawn and gnarled with age and hard work, she worked ever painfully slow. Growing old was for the birds, Claire often grumbled as she fought the aches and pains of what was supposed to be her golden years.
Laying her work aside as she heard the sound of a car rambling passed her house, Claire took the time to look out the window at the full moon shining so brightly on this night as she allowed her mind to take a stroll back through time when she had been a young lady in love with a miner named William.
Thinking of him often, especially in the glow of twilight, and on nights like this one when the shadows of the full moon bathed the old weeping willow tree, its limbs drooping down, Claire recalled the days when that old willow tree had been a haven which had secretly guarded her love.
For it had been there beneath that old willow tree that Claire had patiently awaited to catch her first glimpse of her true love as he strolled down the tracks, his dark handsome looks hidden beneath a veil of coal dust after a long day’s work in the mines just up the tracks.
Spotting him just as the evening sun was sinking below the horizon, her heart would pond with eager anticipation of the very moment when her Sweet William would walk up and stay before her, his eyes filled with a gleam that spoke of the love he held in his heart for Claire, as she stepped out from beneath the drooping limbs of the old tree.
Upon catching her first glimpse of her one and only true love, Claire would have loved nothing better than to have ran up the tracks to meet William and to fall into his work strengthened arms. But alas, it could not be. For mama had told Claire that it would not be a proper thing for a young lady such as she to do, for a proper young lady was never to be so bold as to show just open affections for a man.
So waiting until he approached her, she would step out from beneath the willow tree to face him as each of them wondered about that wonderful thing called love. Slowing and carefully taking Claire into his arms, William would only pull her as close as he dared, knowing that there were others who were watching their every move, just waiting for the opportunity to claim that the two young people weren’t modest in their relationship with each other.
Standing there longing to be taken into his arms and held so closely that she could hear his heart beating so close to hers, Claire was often times tempted to throw caution to the wind, but none the less, her upbringing would not allow her to be so bold.
Taking her hands in his, Claire’s dear, sweet William would hold her hands gently as he would whisper, “My dear sweet Claire” as if he didn’t wish for another soul to hear his declaration. “Someday very soon we will wed and you will be mine forever” he pledged, as he too wished that he could draw her tighter into his embrace.
Feeling the tears of happiness burning her eyes, Claire had whispered back, “Oh yes, my dear sweet William, I will marry you” she assured him. “Oh how I am looking forward to that day” she recalled telling him while desperately wishing for a kiss from his coal blackened lips, only to be denied that pleasure.
Oh such sweet memories of those long ago days which Claire carried in her heart, where once again she was a young lady as she stared down on the willow tree now standing silently alone and deserted since the railroad tracks had been removed long ago, leaving Claire with the memories of the days when she had been young and oh so in love with her Sweet William.
So tonight, as she sits staring out the window at the old weeping willow tree, an old and lonely lady who has only her memories of those long gone days when she had been young and he had been also, back to a time when it had seemed that time stand still for two young people so in love.
Continuing to stare down on the ring which William had placed on her finger one evening when he had asked her to be his forever, she recalled how she had been ever so happy as they had sworn to each other that that they would have a lifetime together to explore that wonderful, delicate thing that happened between a man and woman called love, neither one knowing just how quickly forever for them would be over and he would be taken from, called into eternity at such a young age.
With the tears running openly and hot down her face this night, Claire’s mind refused to release the memory of the explosion which had ripped through the mines, taking from her forever her one and only true love, her one and only Sweet William, leaving her behind to spend her entire lifetime a spinster held captive to the bittersweet memories of yesterday.
This night as Claire is remembering ever so clearly those last few days she had with her Sweet William she realized that to tell of that night of her loss she needed first to tell you of the very first time she met her Sweet William.
It had been a hot summer day when chance had brought them together. He being every bit of ten years old, and I had been eight. At the time William and his family had just moved into the coal camp which I and my family called home. It had been a typical summer day when she had seen William walking up the tracks, carrying an old, battered fiddle case in his right hand.
Going only a short distance up the track, William had sat down on those hot, gleaming ribbons of rails only a few feet from where Claire had been wading in the clear, cool waters of creek and had taken a fiddle from that old battered case.
Sitting there in the heat of the day he begin to play the fiddle, his audience being the trees, the birds, and any other critter that may have been near enough to hear to music coming from the fiddle. And, oh what mournful tunes he was playing.
It had been as if those tunes where coming from deep down within a soul that somehow knew that he would not live to a ripe old age. Could William have known, even at that tender age that his demise was to deny him of a life that he would find himself longing for later on down the road of life?
As Claire looked back on that time and the very last night she was to have with William she could now recall a certain look which had been in eyes that night, that she had not given notice to because of the love and happiness that had been ruling that particular time.
As he had slipped the engagement ring on her finger William’s eyes had been shining with all the love one could and would expect from someone who loved another with a deep love that would last for an eternity. Yet, at the same time, there had been a sadness about his eyes which would haunt Claire later in life.
However, as she looked back now, she realized that the biggest clue she had missed that night had came as William was making ready to leave her side for what would be the very last time. So caught up in her own happiness in knowing that in a few short weeks she would be marrying William, Claire had not exactly caught his last farewell words.
Instead of taking me into his arms as he usually did, whispering, “Goodnight my love. I will see you tomorrow” he had taken my hands in his and had kissed me as I had never been kissed before as he had whispered, “Goodbye my love. Remember, I will love you forever.”
Then, slowly releasing my hand as he allowed his to gently slid away, he had turned and walked away down tracks for the very last time, leaving Claire standing all alone beneath the old willow tree.
Did William somehow know that night that all of their plans were for naught? Could the icy fingers of death have been tugging at his very soul even then? Claire knew she would never know the answer to the questions which were haunting her this lonely.
So, tonight as she sat by the window looking down on the old willow tree, in her mind’s eye she can once more see that handsome face of the man she had fallen so in love with, as in the distance she can once more hear the mournful sounds of a fiddle playing just up the way, as one more time in this lifetime her Sweet William is reminding her of the love between two young people that were so much in love that neither time nor death can never erase it or take it from her heart.
Closing her window to block out the sounds of that mournful fiddle, Claire removed from her finger that ring placed there so long ago, tucking it safely away until such time when he nephew will find his one and only true love and once more the ring can adorn the hand of a lovely young lady who will cherish just as Claire had all those years.
Drawing in a deep breath, Claire sought to tuck the memories of her Sweet William within a place in her heart what will forever belong him until that sweet day somewhere down that road of life when her eyes will close in death and she will be once again joined with her Sweet William, never to part again.
As for now?
Despite all of her certainty that she would never find another that she could love as she had loved her Sweet William, Claire has indeed found a true and lasting love with another whom knew William as well as she did. For Hank had been William’s only brother and she is eternally thankful to the Lord for helping her to find once again a special love in her middle aged life.
For she knows that with Hank by her side her heart has at long last found a love that will help her through the remainder of her life, and she knows with a certainty that this day William is smiling down on her and Hank, for Claire could feel his presence as one last time William whispered to her, “Be happy my love. Be happy.”
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