Jenny Medford O’Riley, March 1908: Oklahoma is a state as of last November, but that hasn’t changed the way we live here in Dodsworth. I got a letter from Mama a few days ago, and I’ve read it dozens of times. My tears have made the ink run in places, especially when she told me my brother had died, leaving behind a wife and two children. I have such fond memories of the times I spent with Samuel when we were young. I hope that my daughter, Rachel, and her brothers have memories like that. Rachel is now twenty-one, married, and has a daughter and a son of her own. It’s hard to think that so much time has passed, but months and years stand still for no one. I’m glad that Rachel is happy. She was such a rebellious child, and I wanted to pull my hair out before I got her raised. We have settled into life here in Oklahoma, but I do miss Mama. She’s getting on up in years now, and I do wish I could see her once more before her time comes to an end.

“Mama, if I live a long way from you when I leave home, will you write me real letters that I can keep and read over and over?” Holly asked.

“Of course I will, but where are you planning on living?” Lily answered.

“Well.” Holly hesitated. “Faith is probably going to the Air Force Academy when she graduates next year, and I might do that, too, when I get out of school. The counselor is looking into what all she has to do to get into the academy. It sounds like a good program.”

“If that’s what you want to do, I’ll support you in your decision,” Lily promised, all the time hoping that she’d change her mind by the time she graduated.

“Thanks, Mama.” Holly gave Lily a brief hug. “I’m not going to think of Jenny dying, even though I know she will before we finish the journal. It makes me real sad to think that I’d ever lose you, so you have to live forever.”

Lily had to work hard to keep the tears at bay, but the moment passed quickly when Holly jumped up and grabbed her notebooks. “I’ve got to go get some of this written down while it’s fresh in my mind.”

Lily remembered the day that Sally had called to tell her that her mother had passed away. Jenny had had poor means of transportation and miles between where she lived and her mother, Matilda. Lily had only the excuse of being busy, and she had regretted not having visited her mother more often in the past five years.

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen