The Sisters of Sugarcreek
Page 34
“Well . . .” She picked up her mug, cupping it in her hands. “If Jessica says yes, and I’m guessing she will, I figure they’ll be moving into Derek’s place. And then, who knows? Maybe I would move in over the Cottage. That way, I’d save money on transportation, and I’d be verra close to work.”
“But, Lydia . . .” Jonas’s chair squeaked as he sat back to look at her. “If that happened . . . if you lived close to work, well then, you’d be far from me.”
His concern showed in his eyes as they met hers. But there was something else in his warm gaze as well. A longing. A fondness that she’d seen before . . . whenever Daniel glanced at Liz. And when Derek looked at Jessica. The way she’d always hoped someone would look at her . . . would see her. A way no man had ever regarded her before.
As a flash of warmth coursed up her neck, she was too stunned to speak.
When she didn’t readily reply, he quickly began to apologize. “I’m sorry, Lydia. That wasna right of me. I probably shouldn’t have said that.”
Setting her mug on the table, she took a moment to find her voice. “Nee, Jonas, it’s okay that you did. I’ve learned in this life that it’s a gut thing when people say what they feel,” she told him. “A verra gut thing.”
They sat staring at one another in a silence that was foreign to them. Until finally Jonas spoke again.
“I’m guessing we should get going to town, don’t you think?”
“Jah.” She took a deep breath. “I do.”
As they both got up, he helped her clear the table, placing dishes in the sink.
“There’s still some pie left,” she let him know as she tore off a piece of foil. “Since it’s your favorite—” she smiled—“do you want me to wrap it up for you?”
“Nee. I’ll be back soon enough,” he said as he scooted in their chairs. Then he paused and slowly dipped his head toward her. “I mean . . . if that’s still all right with you, Lydia.”
“Jah, Jonas. Jah, of course it is,” she said to her kindly neighbor.
As she covered the pie for safekeeping, she surprised herself by thinking how much—how verra much—she hoped what he said was true.
As Jonas rounded the last bend in the road and slowed the buggy at the base of Main Street, Lydia gasped, feeling like she’d never seen the town before. And she hadn’t—at least not like this.
“It’s a beauty, ain’t it?” Jonas read her mind.
“Jah, it sure is,” she whispered in agreement.
White lights glimmered on both sides of the streets, outlining frost-covered shop fronts and roofs all the way up to the hilltop. Every shop window, doorway, and lamppost was adorned with greenery and red bows, leaving nothing left out or exposed. Horses and buggies parked along the way added a nostalgic feel. All making Sugarcreek look like exactly what it was—a Christmas village of the quaintest kind.
And it wasn’t just the town that shimmered in the night. As she looked to the top of the hill, where Faith Community Church used to stand, even that area appeared to be glowing.
All the grime, the ashes, the remnants of the scarred, charred church had been taken away, completely removed from the scene. Now there was only light where darkness used to be. Now there was life where death had had its ugly hold.
Faraway stars twinkled like diamonds overhead, helping to illuminate the life-size manger scene with real people and farm animals. As a slight dusting of snow continued to cover the grounds in bright whiteness, townspeople—Englisch and Amish alike—were gathering together to give thanks and praise.
And it came to Lydia as Jonas’s horses clip-clopped leisurely up the hill—a memory of a rare buggy ride she’d taken with Henry, when they’d come to town on a spring day. Right away her eyes had been drawn to Faith Community’s steeple. How pretty it had looked to her, gracing the landscape the way it did. Reaching up, into the clear blue sky. The highest thing for miles around with sheer strands of the purest white clouds drifting by.
Yet now, as her eyes settled on the hilltop, she saw everything so differently.
For the first time in her life she felt a part of something—something bigger than herself. A town and people she’d come to know. So much more to care about in her life.
Now she was looking forward to the day the steeple would be raised over the town again. Not for any beauty it would hold. Or any elegance it would add to the horizon.
But for the reminder it would always be.
Letting her never forget that she and all the others were being watched over. Cared for. And loved.
In that, as she’d come to know, she could trust. In that, she could always find her strength.
Jessica could barely knit, Liz could knit one or two things well, and Lydia was accomplished at both knitting and quilting—yet they all find a haven in Rose’s Knit One Quilt Too Cottage. What does the shop mean to each of them? Do you have a special place that’s a haven for you? What makes it so special?
Liz, Jessica, and Lydia are different from one another in many ways—life experience, age, faith walk, and culture. Yet they become like sisters—sisters of the heart. Do you think it’s common for women to bond that way? Why or why not?
Early in the story, Jessica stares at Lydia’s house in the dimness of night, thinking there is no place safe from things that tear your world and heart in two. Has your sense of security ever been shattered as Jessica’s was? Where do you turn to feel safe?
As members of Rose’s Secret Stitches Society, Liz, Jessica, and Lydia traipse around in the dark of night, hoping to bring encouragement and hope to townspeople going through trouble. Yet in each act of kindness, something goes just a little haywire. Does this ever seem to happen to you? How do you respond when your good intentions run into obstacles? Can you think of a time when such mishaps made you laugh?
Which Secret Stitches Society outing was the most enjoyable for you? Could you see yourself doing something like that?
As Lydia becomes more accustomed to Liz and Jessica and the world around her, she begins to realize that her marriage had many problems. Do you think if Henry hadn’t passed, if they’d always stayed married, that those issues would have come more to light in later years? Or do you think Lydia would’ve remained satisfied with the sort of relationship they had?
The darkness in Henry’s past comes as a complete shock to Lydia. Yet that sickening and sad information helps her better understand the puzzle of her husband and their marriage. Henry never shared the horror he lived through, so there was no way Lydia could’ve known. But too often, in everyday incidents, do we also look at the surface of a person’s life and make assumptions we shouldn’t? Can you think of a time when your first impressions were proven wrong?
Jessica tells her new friends, “All the while I wasn’t thinking of [God], He was thinking of me. I know He was because He sent you—both of you—into my life.” Do you believe God sends people into our lives when we most need them? How was this true for each of the women in the story?
Having Daniel enter her life the way he did comes as a surprise for Liz. Why do you think she has such a difficult time understanding her feelings for him? Has there been a time when a new door unexpectedly opened in your life? Did you welcome it? Fear it? Both?
At times, as with the fatalities from the church fire, it is difficult to imagine any good can come from such a devastating event. But did some good come from the fire? In overwhelming situations in your own life, have you been able to, with time, look back and see evidence that God was there and that He cared?
Rose certainly had an enormous impact on many people she left behind—her family, friends, even customers. How do we know this? What made her so special?
Coming into town for the Christmas candlelight service, Lydia remembers a time when the church steeple pointed to the heavens, and she looks forward to when it will be raised again. How do her feelings in this final scene reflect her relationship with God? How do her thoughts bookend the beginning of the novel, when she is rec
alling her mother’s advice?
CATHY LIGGETT is the American Christian Fiction Writers’ prestigious Carol Award–winning author of Beaded Hope, her debut women’s fiction novel, which was also a nominee for Romantic Times’ Reviewers’ Choice Awards’ Best Inspirational Novel. Besides women’s fiction, she enjoys writing sweet romances and has been honored to be recognized in her hometown for literary and artistic achievement by the public library of Hamilton County.
Cathy knew writing fiction was for her after reading aloud a junior high English assignment and watching the class—at least the girls—well up with emotion. Yet it wasn’t until much later in life that she seriously tried her hand at storytelling again. First came years of advertising copy writing, gift product development, and the publication of a nonfiction book for NAL.
Cathy and her husband, Mark, live in Loveland, Ohio, and spend most of their free time walking and spoiling their boxer mix, Chaz. They are always happiest when their greatest blessings—their two grown children and most delightful son-in-law—are home for a stay. Visit Cathy’s website at www.cathyliggett.com.
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