Grandma’S Rose: The Beginning of Christine's Life and Rose

By Cathy L. Young

Pain, disappointment and grief begin to unravel when Christopher loses his beloved wife Dotty, his daughters mother. Her death was due to the doctors mistakes. They watched their father nearly lose his mind.

But as the story unfolds Christine becomes the
strength of the family. She meets a man named
Curtest Creston, while working in the cotton fields, their love affair brings them to marriage and family.

After having one daughter and five sons, Christine
Hopes that the baby shes carrying is another girl so
She could name her after the roses she loves so much.

The baby she hoped for turned out to be a girl, she named her Rose. Life for Rose is everything but roses. Rose comes face to face with challenges in an abusive relationship, as well as family gossip, criticism, jealousy, hurt, disappointments and broken dreams.

Novel, Grandmas Rose is a story thatll make you think and touch you enough to make you cry.

History, present, future and true life situations that we face in life everyday is packed in this story.

So read this heart touching story and enjoy it as much as I have..

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456743758

Cathy L. Young

Cathy L. Young, a native African American from [unreadable info], is an aspiring [unreadable info] author and writer. The native comes from a large family of [unreadable info] and is the mother of two daughters and a granddaughter. She graduated and went to college for two years….

Book preview

Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Acknowledgments

I’d like to acknowledge and dedicate this novel, Grandma’s Rose, to my dear, darling mother, Rose, for her knowledge, wisdom, and support, as well as to my brother Clifton Ferguson, Jr. Thank you both for making this novel possible.

I’d also like to thank my daughters, Arcyea and Arteasha, as well as my granddaughter, Aaliyah, for every act of kindness and support. Without you all, I wouldn’t have made it through the production process of this novel.

I also want to thank my godmother, Elder Tamarshal Adkins, for pushing me to my destiny. I want to also thank the entire AuthorHouse staff for the production of Grandma’s Rose. I give great thanks and appreciation most of all to God, who has made this possible. Thanks, everybody.

Grandma’s Rose

missing image file

Cathy is also the author

Of Grandma’s Rose.

Grandma’s Rose

The Beginning of Christine’s Life and Rose

Cathy L. Young

Flowers and roses are also important,

but they could never take her place.

—Cathy L. Young

Chapter 1

It was May 5, 1944. The death of Christine’s mother really brought about a change in everybody’s life. The funeral was very sad, because everybody knew what had happened. On that day, Christine took May Jane with her out into the old country woods to pick flowers for their mother. She picked as many flowers as she could to go on their mother’s grave. Christine was very saddened by what had happened to their mother. She watched her father nearly lose his mind. Daily, he’d go to his room to look at his wife’s beautiful floral printed dresses and everything that reminded him of her, and he’d cry. He’d do this every time he got off work. Sometimes Christine and May Jane wouldn’t see him at all, but they’d hear him crying in his room for hours at a time.

Christopher just couldn’t get over the fact that Doctor Spenser had killed his wife and that, because she was an African American, nothing was done about it. Justice wasn’t served. Not only did Doctor Spenser kill Dotty by sewing her intestines up wrong after taking the cancerous tumor out, but he and his team of surgeons also accidentally sewed a small pair of surgical scissors inside her abdominal area. When she went back to the doctor and informed him that she was hurting and vomiting up blood and feces, the doctor went back in to perform another surgery. That’s when he discovered that a small pair of surgical scissors had been left inside her abdominal area.

One hour after the second surgery, Dotty died a horrible death at the age of only thirty. Christopher was right there by her side in the hospital room, holding her hand as she took her last breath. He believed that if the doctor hadn’t performed the surgery in the first place, she would have lived a little longer. Christopher watched Dotty suffer and die a horrible death, and he couldn’t do anything to save her life. That constantly bothered his conscience, and he wanted to kill Doctor Spenser and the team of surgeons that performed the surgery. He was just that angry with them, and for about three years he couldn’t get over it. He even stayed a single man.

The girls would constantly hear him in his room, steadily grieving over the loss of their mother. From that point on, he made sure that he instilled in his daughters the principle to always doctor on yourself. Don’t go to the doctor at all: the doctors will kill you. The doctors ain’t God, Christopher told Christine and May Jane. He wouldn’t take them to the doctor for anything in the world, because of their mother’s death. To Christopher, doctors weren’t smart enough to save lives. They would make too many mistakes and take lives instead.

Christine and May Jane listened to him and did exactly what he said. Christopher was left to finish raising his two daughters alone, and they had no other choice but to listen to him. Christopher was very hurt. Shocked and upset that he had lost his wife, he was very hard on the girls after Dotty passed. He was especially hard on Christine, because she was the oldest. He wouldn’t even give her the floral dresses and shoes that Dotty had told him to give to her before she died. Christopher always believed that Christine should have been a boy in the first place. Christine had to help finish raising May Jane because she was the oldest and had been closer to their mother than her sister was. She knew more about the tasks that needed to be done around the house.

However, shortly after Dotty passed, Christopher went to Dotty’s job and returned the clothes that she had washed and pressed. Her boss, Mrs. Janie Sue Thompson, hadn’t known that she had passed away. Mrs. Thompson paid the money that was owed to Christopher and asked him where Dotty was. That’s when he told her that Dotty had passed some weeks ago. Mrs. Thompson then asked Christopher if one of the girls could come and take the place of their mother as her maid.

No, ma’am. Mrs. Janie Sue Thompson, my girls ain’t fixing to be nobody’s maid and work themselves to death like their mother did. If I could do things over again, I would. I miss my wife! I miss her every day of my life! Christopher said as he took a few minutes to cry.

I hate that I miss her too. I really do, Mrs. Janie Sue Thompson said as she patted Christopher on the back.

My girls gon’ go to the cotton fields with the rest of the family. Our family is cotton pickers. They gon’ pick cotton with the boys and young men. There’s a few ladies out there picking. They gon’ be cotton pickers, Christopher said as he wiped his eyes, which were full of tears. Yeah! Cotton pickers. They start working in the cotton fields tomorrow. But thank you, Mrs. Janie Sue Thompson. Thank you, Christopher said politely as he took the money and put it in his back pocket.

Well! Well! I’m sorry that you lost Dotty. I lost Dotty, too. I’m gon’ miss her. She was a hardworking maid ’round here. I couldn’t have no better maid. She kept my house looking good, and I didn’t have to lift a finger. Not a’t all. I sure do hate you feel that way about your girls, though. They could’ve had a good job working for me inside all day long, out of the heat and out of the sun. They could’ve replaced their mother, at least one of them. Well, I guess I’m gon’ have to find me another maid somewhere ’round here, Janie Sue Thompson said as she became angrier.

Good-bye now, it’s time for you to go. I’ve got things to do. Good-bye now! Janie Sue Thompson said as she saw Christopher to the front door.

When Christopher was walking out, he thanked her. She closed the door without saying anything else to him. In fact, she was so upset with him that she didn’t want him ever to come back. Mrs. Janie Sue Thompson was disappointed by the fact that Christopher wouldn’t allow his daughters to work for her as her maid. She often made her workers stay long hours with very little pay and no off days. The Thompsons were known for being hard on their workers. They didn’t want their workers to take breaks to use the bathroom or to eat. They wanted all they could get out of their workers. Christopher and everybody else in town knew about the Thompson family.

Christopher cried all the way home as he thought about how hard his wife had worked for the Thompson family, from six o’clock AM until ten o’clock PM daily, sunup until sundown, seven days a week. Dotty was hardly ever home with her two daughters and husband. She couldn’t even take care of her own family thanks to how hard she worked taking care of the Thompson family. She’d worked for the Thompson family from the age of six on up until she took sick and died. Christine was always left at home by herself, raising her younger sister May Jane while both parents worked.

Life was difficult for Christine as a child. She learned almost everything from her father or by experience. Christopher was a hardworking man and a darn good father to his children. He tried to be the best father that he could be to them, but he hated the fact that he’d lost his wife, Dotty. Christopher cried even more every time he thought about the Thompson family and everything his wife had gone through. He thought about stories of racism that Dotty used to tell him when he came home.

When Christopher made it home, he went straight to his bedroom. He closed his door and locked it. He cried even more as he opened the closet and looked at all the beautiful floral-printed dresses that she had made and worn. They were still hanging in the closet, just the way she had left them before she died. Dotty knew how much Christine loved flowers, just like Dotty herself, so before she died, she told Christopher to make sure that he gave those dresses to nobody but Christine. She wanted Christine to have every one of those beautiful floral-printed dresses. She often talked about how beautiful they would look on Christine.

Christopher wanted to be strong, but he wasn’t ready to let go of Dotty yet. He didn’t know how to cope with the sudden loss, so he held on to the things that Dotty had wanted him to give to their daughters. Christopher was falling apart, but he didn’t want his daughters to see the many tears he cried, so when he got emotional he would go to his room and stay there hours, or sometimes even for entire days and nights. Christine and May Jane were grieving for their loss, too, but they handled the situation better than Christopher did.

Christopher thought his heartache would never end. But when he thought of Christine and her younger sister May Jane going to the cotton fields tomorrow, he knew that they were going to be all right. He knew that they were better off picking cotton with the rest of the family. They would be able to come home before dark.

Chapter 2

Three years had passed. It was now March 22, 1947, and Christopher was still grieving over the loss of Dotty. Christine was eighteen years old. She had graduated from school and was now working as a full-time cotton picker every day. Every day, Christine was allowed to leave her job and go get May Jane after she got out of school. They picked cotton together while their father worked his full-time job at the Sunbeam Flower Mill.

Christopher held Christine responsible for taking care of May Jane, who was only thirteen years old at the time. They were all each other had. Christopher worked all the time at the mill. He tried to stay as busy as possible, hoping to get over his wife’s death and everything that used to be.

However, Christopher had been thinking about getting Christine married off. Since she was eighteen years old and had finished school, she was ready to be on her own. He wanted her to have a life of her own, since things had been so difficult for everybody. He had taught her all that she needed to know about working, although she didn’t know how to drive or pay bills. She had been taught to physically work hard. She knew how to work on a farm and do chores around the house as well as be a mother, because she was still raising her sister. May Jane was the only reason he didn’t press the issue and get Christine married off right away. Christine wanted to stay home as long as she could, knowing that after she left, May Jane would be home alone all the time while daddy worked. Christine watched over her sister and used everything within herself to protect her. She didn’t want to lose the only sibling she had. Christine and May Jane always knew that they had each other and that nothing could separate them. Separating them was like separating two close brothers. Christopher understood that, and he wouldn’t dare try to separate them. They had been through enough after losing their mother, so they remained together. Christine continued to work in the cotton fields.

Curtest’s mother, Dandy Creston, was also a cotton picker. She worked in the cotton fields seven days a week from sunup to sundown, just like Christine. They didn’t know each other: although they worked together, they worked far apart. Every morning, Dandy caught a ride to the cotton fields with some of the other cotton pickers. On the weekends, Curtest didn’t have to work at the Arsenal, so he helped his mother pick cotton out in the fields. That’s how he and Christine met each other. Curtest had been watching Christine for a long time before he finally got up enough courage to approach her.

Excuse me, ma’am, can I carry that for you? Curtest asked, smiling.

Sure. Why, yes, Christine said nervously as she paused and laughed while looking at him. He was so handsome that he stood out from the crowd and made her blush. Christine and May Jane would always giggle and laugh together, and Curtest would smile at them as he carried the bags of heavy cotton. On the day he and Christine introduced themselves to each other, Christine also introduced her sister May Jane to him. They all laughed