The Hospitality Connection

By Ann M Streetman

Hospitality can be as simple as giving food, drink, or shelter to friends, family, or strangers. Sometimes it is much more than that. For the characters in these stories, hospitality was important to the giver and the recipient. If you have experienced hospitality in unexpected times and places, you will identify with them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ann M Streetman
• Release date: Oct 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301310388

Ann M Streetman

I may have inherited my flair for storytelling from my father. I heard him spin a lot of good tales as I was growing up. Then came my degree in journalism and a lifelong career in many kinds of communication. I served more than 14 years in various management positions (including president and chief paid staff) of Texas Safety Association, which was a not-for-profit statewide educational organization. Along the way, I also served for 9 years as media contractor for Region 6 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (5 states and the Indian Nations via the Bureau of Indian Affairs Indian Highway Safety Program). My duties there included writing educational materials for Region 6 entities and their partners. These jobs gave me the opportunity to tell stories of organizations and people who made a positive difference in the lives of others. In retirement, I'm still telling stories. My focus now is on uplifting fiction for adults and children's stories. You can learn more about my writing and ask me questions at Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5768376.Ann_M_Streetman . Thanks for stopping by today. AS

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The Hospitality Connection

By Ann M. Streetman

Copyright 2012 Ann M. Streetman

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Table of Contents

Preface

The Immigrants

The Station

The Call

About the Author

Connect with the Author

Preface

For thousands of years the concept of hospitality has been important to people of faith. It is a broad concept. It may be as simple as providing food, drink, or a place to stay for family, friends, or strangers. Sometimes, it’s more complicated than that. Providing hospitality is important to the giver and the recipient. So it was for the characters in the stories in this collection.

The Immigrants

As third class passengers David and his Aunt Deborah kept to themselves as much as possible on the long watery journey to America. They ate their meager rations together and walked on the deck very little. Deborah worried that her young charge, her sister’s little boy, would be rail-thin by the time they reached America. He threw up often and ate little. Sometimes at night she would lie awake, worrying that the officials on Ellis Island would think he was very sick and not let them into the United States. She had heard many bad stories about entry problems. Sometimes she had nightmares, waking up saying, No. No. He’s not sick. Not sick. Please let us in.

She and David had left their whole lives behind them. It was not so bad for her. She would miss her very nice seamstress shop where she made a good living, but she had no husband to leave behind – only a sister, a brother, some cousins, and many friends. For poor little David it was different. His mother was not well enough to travel, and his father would not leave her. This little boy would never see his mother and father again. As far as Deborah knew, they had no relatives in New York City.

The child was sitting quietly a few feet away. David, come here and sit close to me, she said. "Here, put your head in my lap and I will tell you another story about your Cohen ancestors. As I have told you many times, Cohen means priest. Many of our ancestors were priests. My father often said to me,‘It is an honor to be a Cohen. See that you always live up to your name. You must be an honorable and worthy person, fearing The