Patch Town

By Robert Parlante

Widower for three years. Frequent periods of unemployment throughout his life. Unresolved anger. A fragmented family that cannot deal with a father spiraling downward. When Martin receives a letter from his old eighth grade teacher asking him to forgive her for a painful childhood accusation, he is overwhelmed once again by his hatred for Miss Wingate, blaming her for much of what went wrong in his life. His son and daughter eventually help him take reluctant steps to forgive the teacher he wished was long dead. He also meets recently-divorced Linda who brings a flow of freshness into his life. She encourages Martin to visit this teacher, now dying from dementia in a nursing home. Along his journey to the coal mining community of his childhood, strangers enter his life compelling him to confront his past and unsure future—helping him move from failure to forgiveness and spiritual redemption.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ambassador International
• Release date: Nov 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781620203934

Robert Parlante

Robert "Bob" Parlante is a minister married to Angela, and they live in Matthews, North Carolina. They have three children and nine grandkids. His favorite pastimes usually involve books, gardening and spending time with family. "The Reflection in the Mirror" is Bob's third book in the "Patch Town" series.

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PRAISE FOR PATCH TOWN

This story will take you on a great journey! Can a negative moment in the past ever be turned around to bring a positive future? Can years of heartbreak ever end? You will be able to focus on the power of one choice that will change the course of life forever.

—Mark Muirhead, Founder of #FriendsForeverTV

An amazing story of redemption that turns failure into forgiveness . . . Get ready to see what happens when we allow our STORY to become ENCAPSULATED into God’s BIG STORY . . . Bob’s amazing spiritual journey of how anger and resentment can lead to failure, thus interrupting our growth and faith will MESS you up. Get ready to be challenged . . . If you’ve struggled with anger or any unresolved forgiveness, this book is definitely a MUST read.

—Manny Ohonme, Founder, President & CEO of

Samaritan’s Feet International

Having had years of experience nurturing and helping people through the major issues of life, Robert Parlante is able to write a story that resonates with the reality of many people’s lives. His story will take the reader on a familiar journey through anger and pain, forgiveness and redemption, and ultimately one of faith. It’s a story that will bring encouragement, hope, and even healing to each of its readers.

—Timothy Harris, Lead Pastor at Promise

International Fellowship

Patch Town

A Letter From Miss Wingate

© 2014 by Robert Parlante

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-1-62020-290-6

eISBN: 978-1-62020-393-4

Unless otherwise indicated, Scriptures are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Cover Design and Page Layout by Hannah Nichols

eBook Conversion by Anna Riebe

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

At the completion of my first novel I found myself trying to think of all the people who entered my life and contributed their support and encouragement to this book. I’ve been writing since the 7th grade so I found that task formidable. Through my decades of life as a husband, father, friend . . . as an engineer, minister and writer . . . there are just so many people who touched my life in different ways. I am sure their influences, their words in passing and their different physical makeup, even their spiritual lives, have likely found their way into my characters, the way they live and the hurdles they have to face and overcome.

Those I have met along the road of life did not set out intentionally to pour an experience into my life so I could incorporate it into a novel decades later. Something far greater had to be there to pick and choose, refine and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite! That honor belongs to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He has been steering my ship of life since I was a young man. I believe He orchestrated my novel and its plot lines. To Him be all the glory.

Other than my Lord and Savior, the most important love of my life is my wife Angela. We met on a blind date. I was an engineering student, and she was in nursing school. Friends thought I should meet someone new. Angela was a last minute substitute for the original girl who backed out. Only God could have arranged that date and brought soulmates together.

It takes a lot to live with a writer who easily gets frustrated by the difficulty of the creative process, the endless hours stooped over a laptop, and the restless nights while plotting stories in my dreams. Thanks Angela for your patience and support. I love you and appreciate all you do for me and our family.

Speaking of family. Thanks to our three children and their spouses—Lisa and Fritz, Rob and Laura, and Christa and Paul. At times in their lives we tried to save them, which of course we cannot do. Angela and I prayed that God would send faithful witnesses into their lives to accomplish that salvation. That all happened, but that’s another book.

Our children are a gift from God, and they have given us nine wonderful grandchildren (in birth order): Matt, Abby, Theresa, Brianna, Jake, Joe, Luke, Sam and Steve. They keep me young of mind and tech savvy. I pray that God will draw them all closer to Him, and that He would reveal His plans for their lives.

By the way, I named characters in this book, and its future derivatives, after each of my grandkids. I warned them though. The book characters are not them, and do not have their physical appearance or personality. I just thought it was a fun thing to do. They can’t wait to read the book. Hope they are not disappointed. I made sure no villains were named after them.

I would like to thank Dr. Samuel Lowry, President and CEO of Ambassador International. He was my first contact with the publishing company. I have gotten used to the rejection side of writing and no longer take it personal. So when you get a word of encouragement like I did from Dr. Lowry, one’s spirit is buoyed.

Thanks to Tim Lowry, COO, for his professionalism and guidance. I felt the publication of Patch Town had a steady hand shepherding the work through to publication because of him.

Thanks to Brenda Covert who edited this work. She took what I thought was a good book and turned into something far greater than I expected. Well done!

Thanks to Hannah Nichols, Creative Director, who applied her talent to the book cover art and the final layout and design. Her artwork captured the major themes of the book.

Hope you enjoy the read!

CHAPTER 1

A LETTER FROM MISS WINGATE

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

~ Colossians 3:13, NIV

The unopened letter stood in the middle of the kitchen island where Martin Gilmore had tossed it aside as an unexpected reminder of his past. Since its arrival, the letter felt like a throbbing thorn in his finger. Instead of being a reason to show mercy toward Miss Wingate, as his wife Sarah would likely have encouraged, it was more a reminder of what might have been had he never encountered Elizabeth Wingate.

Martin heard the Lancaster Herald morning newspaper land with a soft thud on the front steps leading up to the wrap-around porch. He glanced out the window and saw the delivery van make a swift U-turn and work its way down his driveway through the patches of early-morning September mist. When the vehicle reached the main road that encircled Lake Windermere, it turned right and faded into the fog hovering along the shore line.

He slipped two slices of whole wheat bread into the toaster before he went outside and picked up the newspaper, anxious to scan the weekend classified pages. The moist air felt clammy against his face. The weather forecast predicted heavy rain starting early in the morning and into most of next week. And the sudden appearance of that letter still felt unsettling, like a thunderous cloud ready to burst open with angry rain.

When he got back inside, he could smell the satisfying fragrance of toast. The coffee-maker wheezed and sputtered with steam, announcing the end of its brew cycle. He poured a cup of coffee, its stimulating aroma giving little encouragement to open that letter delivered in yesterday’s mail from his former eighth grade teacher.

In eighth grade, Martin had been accused of stealing some prized book from the classroom corner library. The book was donated to the school by the Shanks family who owned the local coal mining operations and the patch town housing surrounding the mines.

Miss Wingate claimed she had proof that Martin stole the book, since he was assigned that Friday to dust the corner library before the weekend recess. He was the last one seen with the book. To this day, he could not even remember the title of that cursed book. He had blanked out the incident, hoping it would somehow make him feel like it never happened.

Her punishment felt as real today as ever. Martin had to stand before the class as Miss Wingate coerced him into admitting guilt. She then made him write what felt like hundreds of times, I will not steal, on the blackboard.

In the small rural-district Shanks Patch School, everyone knew each other like family, and that made the punishment even more humiliating. His parents didn’t help. They were insensitive to his plight and believed a teacher was always right. And no amount of pleading could convince them otherwise.

The school was originally built to provide education to children of mine bosses, so Martin’s privilege to attend the old school was not up for discussion. Martin could still feel the remnants of anger he harbored toward his parents for being so narrow-minded. But he always came up with reluctant excuses for their behavior, and today was no different. His father was just a slate picker. His father and mother were uneducated. They just didn’t know any better. It was wishful thinking to smooth over his resentment, and his parents’ behavior finally gave him reason to leave home at eighteen.

When Martin moved from the Shanks Patch to Lancaster, he was determined never to look back to his old roots. His father came down with black lung disease, and his parents relocated to Florida. Two years later his father died from the disease, and his mother ended up in a state-run nursing home, where she passed away three years later. From then on, the only contact Martin had with his past was his cousin James Gilmore, who exchanged Christmas cards every year