Why the Pastor's Wife Left the Church

By JoAnne DeMello

Alice Goodson made a career change before college when she changed her plan and studied religious education. After college, she married a man who became a pastor. Shortly into the marriage, she moved to her familys home on the Pee Dee River in South Carolina.

To make a living, Alice became a teacher at Williams High School. From her teaching experience and her attendance at a writing workshop, Alice became an outstanding teacher.

She made friends in the community that she knew as home and was able to create a new life for herself. In this new life, she understands why she left the church.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jul 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466940772

JoAnne DeMello

JoAnne DeWitt is a writer and a teacher of writing. Her first publication was in her local newspaper in Darlington, South Carolina, and told the story of her fifth grade class going to Columbia and meeting Governor Strom Thurmond. Since then, she has been published in several newspapers, professional journals, and magazines in her current state of North Carolina. Education is the topic of many of these writings. JoAnne has taught students to write in high school and university. She taught creative writing to the inmates at Butner Federal Prison. A selection of writings by the inmates was published in Inside the Walls of Butner Prison.

Book preview

Chapter I

Alice sat on her back porch overlooking the Pee Dee River. She had a bowl of granola cereal, a cup of hot tea and her journal on the table beside her. She immediately began to write.

I had a frightening dream last night. What I dreamed was so real that for a moment I was afraid to open my eyes. My parents were standing within arm’s reach of me. My father, Jesse, had on a heavy jacket that was closely buttoned to his chest. His hair was gray and his complexion was ruddy and filled with wrinkles. My mother had a stern look on her face. She had on a flowing dress that looked as if the wind were blowing it. Both of my parents wanted to tell me that I had acted foolishly when I married a man who acted as if he were a man of God; but proved not to be one.

Alice’s marriage had been a huge mistake. She had married for all the wrong reasons. She had mistakenly expected love, joy and happiness. Her life as the wife of the Pastor of the Barton Episcopal Church in Virginia had been one of the most painful times in her life. The Bishop had assigned David to a monastery in Maine which left Alice alone in Barton. Without any help from the church members she had packed five years of accumulated possessions and moved to the family home on the Pee Dee River. She had forgotten how hot the weather had been during her childhood in South Carolina. What else had she forgotten? Would she be able to create a new life as a teacher? Before going to bed Alice wrote in her journal.

Tomorrow is the first day of school. The weather is too hot to go to school. Yesterday’s storm has stirred the mud in the river to a golden hue but it has done nothing to improve the hot humid weather of September in South Carolina. Besides, this is the first teaching job I have ever had. How will the students behave?

Next morning during the short drive to Williams High School that was located in the small town of Pee Dee, Alice did a mental check of her preparations for the day. Her lesson plans for the first week were clearly outlined in her notebook. The day’s schedule was on the blackboard. The desks were arranged in straight lines and she had taped the seating charts to the podium at the front of the room. The textbooks were on the bookshelf at the back of the room by the window that overlooked the tennis courts. Had she forgotten anything?

Alice arrived in the parking lot just in time to make it to her classroom on time. As she was reaching into the back seat to get her bag of books and lesson plans, an attractive young lady came up behind her.

I am Pat Miller, she said. Welcome to Williams High School. Is there anything that I can do to help you?

Alice was touched with the friendly voice. Thank you. I have everything under control now. I am sure there will be many times in the future that I will need help. What is your room number? What do you teach?

I am in room 109 and I teach world history. Where are you and what do you teach?

"I am in room 127 and I teach English.

Our rooms are not far apart. Come down to my room if you have a problem. We can share lunch together.

As the two teachers signed in at the office, Pat reminded her, Be sure to pick up enough of these orientation booklets for your homeroom. The students need to know the contents for the school wide test during homeroom period on Friday.

"Do I teach it or do they study on their own?

They won’t look at it unless you tell them to. I even give a short quiz or two during the week.

When Alice and Pat had reached South Hall and headed for their adjoining rooms, Pat offered,

Let me know if I can help you during the day. Come over and have lunch with me. If you didn’t bring one, you can pick up enough to avoid starvation in the cafeteria. Good luck!

Alice unlocked her door and placed her briefcase in the chair behind her desk. The potted fern that she had placed on the table near the back window had wilted and needed water. A quick trip to the water fountain at the end of the hall with her newly purchased watering can solved the problem.

She had just placed the watering can in the gray storage cabinet when a neatly dressed girl appeared at the door; she hesitated and then entered the room. Alice reviewed the names on her homeroom roll to hide her uneasiness about the first day of school. Before Alice could gain her composure and greet the first of her homeroom students, the girl spoke.

Can we sit where we want to? We don’t have to have assigned seats, do we?

Wishing that she had spoken first, Alice said, Good morning, I am Mrs. Goodson. If you give me your name, I will tell you which seat is yours. It will be easier to check the roll if everyone is in alphabetical order.

My name is Brenda Smith.

Welcome to ninth grade, Brenda. Let me see. Yes, here is your name. You are in the third desk in the second row. Pick up an orientation booklet and have a seat.

Brenda started toward her desk and then looked back. Mrs. Goodson, I hear that you are new here. Where did you teach last year?

I moved here from Virginia this summer, Brenda. I didn’t teach last year.

Alice had decided that it was best not to tell the students that the only experience that she had was student teaching in her senior year of college. She hoped that no one asked any more questions about her teaching experience. For a moment she had forgotten the five years that she had been the wife of an Episcopal priest in a small parish in Barton, Virginia. Life in a vicarage in Virginia had not demanded that she use the teaching certificate that she had earned in college. She could not remember who had insisted that she get a