Seasons of Hope

By Marlene Sabeh

Hope Lord was taken away from her family as a teenager and placed in foster care. She faced a cruel treatment and a lonely existence but worked diligently through pain and grief towards achieving her dreams. Despite many heartbreaking setbacks, Hope always managed to find her way back to the right track. Powered by the consistent support of her mentor and fueled by her inner strength, she overcame all the drawbacks and disappointments of her rocky destiny. Her success will lead her back to her tormenting past where her life comes full circle and she finally heals and starts to love again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marlene Sabeh
• Release date: Feb 28, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224454426

Marlene Sabeh

Marlene Sabeh immigrated to America at the age of 25. She is a college and career counselor and holds degrees in computer science and human resources training and development. She has two children novels published: A Little Odd and Tell Them You Can. She-Devil is her first adult novel.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title Page

Seasons of Hope

PART ONE

Chapter one

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

PART THREE

Seasons of Hope

Marlene Mansour Sabeh

© 2024 Marlene Mansour Sabeh. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Dad,

Losing you left me pained and hollow.

My journey is dark without

your guidance.

My life is bare without your love.

I miss you with all my heart.

This one is for you.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks again to my omnipresent God, without Whom I am a lost soul.

Thank you my readers, great friends, in-laws, and family who encouraged me to write my second book.

Rafaela Defigueredo, Michael Florio, Lydia Sartan, Rachidi Ackley, thank you for the steadfast support and true friendship.

Special acknowledgements to Andy for the ultimate integrity and continuous encouragement, to my favorite colleague and genuine friend Nicole Heath for the sincerity and laughter, and to Joanne David for the notable wisdom and remarkable finesse.

To my outstanding friends Zeina and Hanan, thank you for never giving up on me: you are my rocks.

Thank you Maher and Marissa for simply being who you are: A part of my heart and my lucky stars.

To the best children (mine!): Thank you Abraham and Meera for giving me Heaven.

And mom, for every breath I take, I wish I could

have taken one for you too.

Thank you for giving me my ethics.

viii

PART ONE

3

Chapter one

It was crystal clear to Hope Lord that it would be a long time before she could see her mother again. She had begged the young officer who cuffed her mother and shoved her in the backseat of his police car. She had pleaded, incessantly, desperately. In vain. The officer had no intention to comply with her imploring requests. He was determined to accomplish what he had come for. But for Hope, many things were at stake. This could mean a detested and dreaded future, not only to her but also to her ten-year-old sister Heather. As the police car vanished at the corner of the street, Heather started crying uncontrollably. Consoled by her sixteen-year-old sister, Heather sat on the couch, in her mother’s cozy living room. She and Hope listened to the tall social worker explaining

the new situation. Holding hands and still weeping in total devastation, Hope and Heather realized that they would have to be placed in foster care. The social worker, Mrs. Garcia, informed the girls that, due to the current circumstances, they would be separated in foster care, but only temporarily until the state found a permanent placement for both of them together.

This was somewhat of an aberration, as explained by Mrs. Garcia, but it was a reality Heather and Hope had to deal with. Although at sixteen years of age, Hope was a very emotional and sensitive girl. The shock of the sudden drastic changes in her shy life have left her numb and speechless, yet distraught and beyond any conceivable solace. The world- her world as she knew it- was caving in on her in a split second. It was extremely excruciating to watch her mother taken away by the police officer; now she would have to endure the separation from her only family member left in her life. Her Heather. What a cruel timing. She looked at her beautiful sister, her blue eyes stricken with pain and sadness, and knew. She knew that

Heather would be crying her way into the night and many nights ahead.

What would tomorrow bring?

Hope was tired from worrying and anticipating. In the midst of her conflicting thoughts, Mrs. Garcia interrupted: Hope, Heather, your respective foster parents will be arriving shortly. Like I already told you, this is temporary. I will do my best to reunite you in one home as soon as I possibly can. Meanwhile, make the best of it and try to enjoy your new family and try to get some rest. Today was quite an ordeal for both of you.

Heather and Hope, hand in hand, possibly for the last time, nodded simultaneously, hoping their foster parents would be late, very late.

During the early and mid 1800s, New Bedford, Massachusetts, was the most successful whaling port in the world. In 1857, more whalers called New Bedford

home than all other whaling ports in the country combined. There were a total of 329 whaling ports in New Bedford’s fleet that employed 10,000 men. The city’s whaling industry was worth approximately 12 million dollars.

But then petroleum was discovered in 1859, a development which quickly caused a decline of the whaling industry in New Bedford and throughout the whole world.

The last whaling voyage left New Bedford in 1925. IN 1941, The New Bedford Whaler, Charles W. Morgan, which had been launched in New Bedford a hundred years earlier and was the only surviving whaling ship from the golden era of American whaling, finally left home for the last time to reside at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.

Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby Dick, was born out of a whaling voyage Melville embarked upon aboard the ship Acushnet, out of New Bedford. In the novel, many references were made to New Bedford

including the famous paragraph; Nowhere in all America will you find more patrician-like houses, parks and gardens more opulent, than New Bedford.

Today, New Bedford has the largest percentage of Portuguese population in the United States. Immigration played a major role in US history and was no less significant in New Bedford specifically. Whaling brought Cape Verdeans to the area in large numbers. Today, a majority of New Bedford residents trace their ancestry to Portugal