Amelia

By Catherine Nagle

The book is an evocative story of young romance, fate, and destiny. Amelia is a highly emotional and passionate young woman who uses her imagination to survive her tragedies, loss, and separation. Her early encounters caused her great suffering and depression, and people saw her as damaged. Her late husband, who never really left her, helped turn her life around forty years later, helping her to make peace with the past and live a better life.

Amelia will inspire and remind readers to find hope behind every nightmare in a story full of coincidences and encounters leading to truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Jan 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781504396318

Catherine Nagle

Biography About Catherine Nagle: Catherine grew up in Philadelphia with 16 brothers and sisters, reared by loving, old school Italian parents. Catherine's artist father's works graced churches and public buildings; her mother was a full-time homemaker. A professional hairdresser, Catherine worked in various salons while studying the Bible and pursuing spiritual growth through courses, seminars, lectures, and conferences, including the National Theology of the Body Congress. She is also an ambassador of the Society of Emotional Intelligence. The mother of two children and now a grandmother, Catherine lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and son. She is the Author of Imprinted Wisdom.

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Copyright © 2018 Catherine Nagle.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-9618-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-9619-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-9631-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018900885

Balboa Press rev. date: 02/08/2018

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my sweet husband, Bill Nagle, for all his love, support, and encouragement. He believed in me and the creation of Amelia from the very beginning.

The past is never dead. It’s not even past.

—William Faulkner

Contents

Chapter 1     Young Love

Chapter 2     Chill of Christmas

Chapter 3     She’s Like a Child

Chapter 4     Bitter-Sweet

Chapter 5     Tropic of Romance

Chapter 6     To Belong

Chapter 7     A Rare Language

Chapter 8     On Stage

Chapter 9     Attorney-Client Privilege

Chapter 10   Imagination

Chapter 11   Behind Our Recovery

Chapter 12   Fate and Destiny

Chapter One

Young Love

A ll it took was one look at Paul Caranci in his neatly pressed uniform walking by Amelia D’Angelica’s house on Convent Lane and her whole life changed. Her heart beat faster and her body trembled. She was only fifteen.

Much older than Amelia, Paul was on his way to class at medical school, where he was studying to become a psychiatrist. It was his last year at the most prestigious private university in their town. Paul was considering taking a residency in another part of town later that year, and Amelia dreaded the thought that she might never get to see him walk past her house again!

But by fate, Laura, Paul’s younger sister, befriended Amelia and asked her to come to their house after school, where they could hang out in her family’s basement. Laura became Amelia’s best friend and they did everything together for many years. The girls were always talking about romance, and everyone in the house overheard their conversations. It was the middle 1960s, and they played records and danced, shared each other’s secrets, and even smoked cigarettes when Laura and Paul’s parents weren’t around. Laura invited more friends to the house, and Paul brought his Ivy League friends there, too. Amelia frequently stayed overnight on the weekends, and sometimes the whole crowd stayed over when the parents went out of town. And that’s where Paul met Amelia.

The Caranici’s striking white house was on top of the hill on Main Street. It was large enough to accommodate the whole crowd when they all stayed overnight. It was all good clean fun, with no drinking, drugs, or sex. They were just normal young people having a good time without adult supervision.

Like Laura and Paul, Amelia lived in a very large, imposing house with a fence around it, on Convent Lane, just around the bend from the Caranici’s. Amelia’s home was always bustling with activity and kids. Mrs. D’Angelica fed and looked after everyone around her, especially her own seventeen children.

Whenever Amelia stayed over at Laura’s, Paul would always creep into her room at night before she went to sleep. She was glad he’d visit her because she wanted him close and wanted to embrace him, but all he wanted was to ask her questions and listen to her talk. She thought that was strange, but she had patience, even though all he did was try to push her buttons so he could test his own psychological theories. On some level, she knew that he was only studying her, analyzing her, testing her, and even playing games with her mind, in part because he was also a jokester. Still, he persisted in being around her whenever she stayed over, and she convinced herself that he felt the same romantic attachment for her that she felt for him.

Laura once told Amelia that her brother would often ask when she was coming over again, and whether she’d be spending the night. Knowing this kept Amelia’s hopes up about a romance with Paul. This went on for the next few years, and everyone in their crowd laughed about how Paul toyed with Amelia’s feelings. But Amelia continued playing along with Paul, waiting for him to reciprocate her feelings. Her trust and faith in Paul remained deep and powerful for a long time.

But one night when Amelia was coming home from her after-school job at the library, she saw Paul’s brand-new car parked across the street from her house. Inside the car, there was Paul, holding her older sister Grace in his arms. Amelia was stunned and devastated.

Amelia and Grace were very different. Grace was outspoken, witty, and more entertaining than Amelia, who was very serious, smart, over-sensitive, and at times lacking in common sense. The girls were opposites in almost every way, but despite their differences, they were very close.

After seeing Paul and Grace embracing in the car, Amelia ran home, emotionally shattered. She told her parents the reason she was so upset, speaking in Italian because she didn’t want the younger kids to know what had happened, and they didn’t understand Italian. Then she rushed sobbing up to her room. All that evening, Amelia waited for Grace to come home, hoping she’d explain why she’d let Paul embrace her, despite knowing how much Amelia loved him!

When Grace came home, she told Amelia that Paul was just showing off his new car, and that she was just being friendly and enjoying his playful conversation until