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{HeartTouchers.com}   *Ruby's Roses* 

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Michael's updated book Heart Touchers "Life-Changing Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter," is finally here! ($13.95)

Visit the link below to preview the book!  Personalized autographed copies are available at no extra charge and we pay the shipping for you!  An E-book version is also available for just $6.95!

http://www.hearttouchers.com/books

Be sure to let us know who you would like it autographed for and then allow about two weeks for us to sign it and send it on its way to you.Credit card, PayPal, Checks, and Money orders accepted! The book is also available through Amazon.com, Borders.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Booklocker.com

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Good morning HeartTouchers.com readers!

It is with great pleasure that I get to share a story by a new writer to HeartTouchers with all of you.  Be sure to write to Donna and give her a warm welcome!  I guarantee her story below will touch your heart in a special way...

From my family to yours,
Michael

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Ruby's Roses

by Donna Gundle-Krieg


The neighborhood kids nicknamed the cranky old couple Crazy Jack and Ruby Rednose. Rumor was that they sat inside and drank whiskey all day. It was true that Jack and Ruby Jones preferred to keep to themselves. About the only words we ever heard from them were "Keep out of our rosebushes!"
 
The rosebushes were seventy beautiful floribunda shrubs that served as a fence between our house and theirs. The rose fence took quite a bit of abuse, since our house was the neighborhood hangout. I was eleven at the time and the oldest of six active girls. We should have played our softball games elsewhere to avoid hurting the roses, but we secretly enjoyed irritating Crazy Jack and Ruby Rednose.

Jack and Ruby had a son whom we nicknamed Crazy Jack Junior. He was due to come home from Vietnam. We heard he had been discharged because of a nervous breakdown. The neighborhood had thrown a big party for

Jimmy Brown when he came home from the war, but no one offered to have a party for Crazy Jack Junior.

The day Crazy Jack Junior was scheduled to come home, we had a neighborhood softball game in our yard. Johnny McGrath was trying to catch a fly ball. He stumbled over one of Ruby Rednose's thorny rosebushes and fell on top of several more. Boy, did he yell, but the roses were the ones that really suffered. From my vantage point at second base, it looked like about ten of them were damaged pretty badly. Johnny's timing was terrible, because as he lay there swearing at the roses, the Joneses' pickup rolled into the driveway. The truck screeched to a halt and Crazy Jack Junior sprang out. He ran full speed toward Johnny.

"You little punk!" he screamed. "Look what you've done to our family's roses! You've always been trouble. I'm going to fetch my gun and shoot you!"

The next few minutes were a blur. The neighborhood kids ran for their lives. Ruby and Jack tried to restrain their son. He continued to yell threats and profanities. Ruby wasn't my favorite person, but I felt sorry for her when I saw her tearfully pleading with Crazy Jack Junior. Finally, they coaxed him inside.

Meanwhile, my sisters and I tore into our house. Breathlessly, we told Mom what had happened. She put down her sewing and scolded, "Girls, I have told you not to play softball near those bushes. Come outside right now and help me fix them."

"Mom, we thought you didn't like the Joneses," we protested. "They're mean to us. Besides, Crazy Jack Junior might shoot us."

Mom just glared at us. We followed her outside to help mend the rose fence. While Mom examined the damaged roses, my sisters and I hung back, plotting how to get out of the thorny job.

As we whispered back and forth, the Joneses' garage door opened and Ruby slowly walked out. She looked sad. And it wasn't her nose that was red, it was her eyes.

Ruby walked over to my mother. The two women stood looking at each other through the new gap in the rose fence. We girls held our breath, waiting to see who would shout first and what terrible things would be said. How much trouble would we be in when it was all over?

Suddenly my mother stepped forward and hugged Ruby. "I'm glad your son came back home," she said gently. "It must have been a horrible experience in Vietnam. We're sorry about the flowers. The girls will replace them if we can't fix them. In return for all the bother, they'll help you weed the roses this summer."

My sisters and I looked at each other in horror, but Ruby smiled at my mother through her tears. "I know we're particular about these roses," she said, "but they're very special to us. When my mother came from England, she brought one tiny part of her favorite rosebush. That was her reminder of home."

She paused a minute, then said sadly, "My mother had a magic touch with flowers. Over the years that one plant multiplied into all these bushes. Since she died, I've tried to keep them up, but I just don't have her magic touch."

Her voice was all choked up. "Mom died while Jack Junior was in Vietnam. He just found out about her death today. When he saw her rosebushes damaged, it was the last straw."

Ruby mopped at her tears. "Once we got him inside and calmed down, he admitted he's out of control. Jack just drove him to Clinton Valley to be admitted to a treatment program."

By now I felt really bad for the Jones family-what a sorrowful homecoming! I could tell my mother and sisters felt the same.

"We all enjoy the roses as much as you do. We1l be happy to help you care for them," my mother said. "You know, some people say I have a magic touch with flowers, too."

Soon both women were down on their knees talking and examining the damaged bushes together. A few weeks later, the plants all returned with vigor.

My mother and Ruby worked together on the roses all summer long and many summers to follow. So did my sisters and I. A friendship formed between the families that would include countless birthdays, graduations and weddings-including Jack Junior's.

Years later, when her son left home and her husband died, Ruby became part of our family, spending many happy hours at our house.

She wasn't Ruby Rednose anymore; she was Aunt Ruby.

And the rose fence wasn't a fence any longer. My mother had turned it into a bridge.

Donna Gundle-Krieg
dokrieg@comcast.net   

Write Donna and let her know your thoughts on her story!

 
Donna Gundle-Krieg of Milford, Michigan, has written for several publications and recently published a children's book called "From Desert to Detroit." This book is about an Iraqi family who comes to America and the big city problems they face, including prejudice. The purpose of the book is to educate children and others about the complex international issues of our time. For more information, go to www.blitzkriegpublishing.com


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Thought For The Day:

"There are dreamers and there are planners; the planners make their dreams come true."


Verse for the Day:

"For I have plans for you, declares the Lord. Plan to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future." --Jeremiah 29:11


Kid's Thought For The Day:

"You can make chores fun by telling everyone you are Cinderella. Unless you are a boy, in which case they might look at you a little funny."


Parent's Thought For The Day

"Advice for the day: If you have a lot of tension and you get a headache, do what it says on the aspirin bottle: Take two and keep away from the children."


Coach's Thought For The Day

"Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal."


Writer's Thought For The Day:

"I often wonder what people do with their days. I've written every day for 70 years. I get up and I write. By noon, I finish a new story, and then I can go pester my wife." --Ray Bradbury


Deep Thought For The Day:

"At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear co-worker who is leaving the company due to 'downsizing', our manager spoke up and said, "This is fun. We should have lunch like this more often." Not another word was spoken. We just looked at each
other like deer staring into the headlights of an approaching truck."



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Video Imagery --Michael's Video Production Business

Dear Michael,

I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for the beautiful video you made for me! It was so special to see both of my parents in tears as they watched their children grow up in pictures before their eyes! I loved the way you made Estania's part set aside from the rest--that was the part that really got them! The music was beautiful. My mom kept blubbering, "What song is that?" I don't know how you did such a beautiful job with the video in such a short time. I really appreciate your doing it so quickly. You have a wonderful gift, and I thank God that you are using it to create such sentimental memories. I hope that I can find my niche like that in an area that I love. Your video gave us one of our most lasting Christmas memories! I hope yours was filled with moments to be treasured forever!
Love,
Trisha
Silverhill, AL

Let me make you a video from your photos!
Check out my video production business
by visiting: http://www.hearttouchers.com/video_imagery

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Do you feel as if life has no meaning for you?
http://www.greatcom.org/english/four.htm

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Reading Books, Changing Lives!

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You can now order a number of different autographed best-selling inspirational books for the same price you would get them in the store, the shipping to you is paid for, and you are helping change the lives of teenagers and those they come in contact with!

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A number of people have written to us asking what an EBook is, since our book is being offered in both print and EBook versions.  An EBook is a book that can be downloaded and read right on your computer. The advantage of ordering the EBook is that is costs less, $6.95 (No other charges), as compared to $13.95 for the print book. Plus your EBook will arrive the same day you order it and you can begin reading the stories right away!

EBooks are read via Acrobat Reader, which is software that is already on your computer. So for those of you who don't want to wait for the print book to be delivered, check out this link to order the EBook version of Heart Touchers "Life-Changing Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter."

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