“Love you,” he replied, and walked out, leaving the door open so he could hear if she called.

Chapter 19

Ruby Butterman was in her element. The park was packed. Tables were filling up with food faster than she’d expected, and every eating establishment in town had not only shut down for the day to ensure anyone wanting to eat out today would be doing it here, but also had donated food from their businesses to share.

Ruby delegated Peanut to get the tables and chairs from the school cafeteria to the park and back, and the local churches had brought their tables and chairs from their dining halls to add to the seating. There were quilts spread out on the ground for some people to sit on, and portable picnic tables and folding chairs scattered about the park.

For Ruby, it was a re-creation of their wedding reception all over again, only this time the weather was cool and there was no threat of rain.

Donna Hollis had a seat of honor in the gazebo and was in disbelief at what was being done on her behalf.

Ruby had styled Donna’s hair, and Donna was wearing a new dress. It was the first time in years she’d felt pretty, and sad Arnold wasn’t alive to see her this way.

There was a constant stream of people coming up to pay their respects, and more than one person had put an envelope in her lap as they were leaving. “Just a little something extra,” they would say. Or “Safe travels,” they might add. All she could do was thank them and try not to cry.

When Ruby came up to get the dinner started, Donna had a lap full of envelopes. Ruby locked them up in her car, then came back to the gazebo.

“It’s time to get this party started,” she said. “Are you ready for this?”

“I think so,” Donna said, and then let Ruby lead her to the microphone. It was her chance to say thank you and goodbye, but she was nervous.

“You’ll be fine,” Ruby said.

Donna took a deep breath, then moved closer to the microphone and quietly cleared her throat.

“First of all, thank you. All of you. On the worst day of our lives, Arnold and I thought we would never be able to hold our heads up in this town again. After what our boys did, I was so ashamed that I wanted to die.” Her voice began to shake. “But God took Arnold instead. I’ll never understand why. All I know is that everything and everybody I loved in this world is gone, and my only solace—the only thing I could think was that I wanted to go home…back to Bethlehem, West Virginia, where I was born and raised. But the likelihood of that happening was slim to none until all of you began offering help, giving me hope.