Saved By Grace

Prologue

As I sit here watching the sunset, I think back over my life. There are a handful of days that stand out, my wedding day being the first that comes to mind. Henry James was the love of my life, we both grew up here so we had known each other our entire lives. Not very many people can claim being able to marry their best friend, but that is the privilege that I had. We were inseparable as children so it was only natural that we dated when we got older. It was no surprise that we married and got our happily ever after, at least until he died serving our country. I never found anyone else, I didn't want to.

Before the Lord took my Henry, we had had two wonderful children. A boy we named William Henry, yes, I've heard all the comments pertaining to our outlaw names. Our second child was a little girl that lived for only a few short days. We had buried her before she was even supposed to be born. You see, I was advised not to have any more children after Billy but when Henry and I found out I was pregnant even after all of the precautions we took, we thanked the Lord for blessing us with another angel. Jessica Ann was laid to rest in the family plot across the creek from our home. This property has been in the James' family for quite some time now, so most of the family has been buried there. I've added a few since my Henry and Annie. I've experienced what most parents fear, outliving their own children.

Billy grew to be a fine young man and took over the family farm. He married a wonderful girl named Ashley and they gave me two beautiful granddaughters. Jessica, named for his late sister, and Meghan, they named for Ashley's best friend. I only gave birth to two children, but I've had five that I've claimed as mine all together. You see, my house became the hangout for Billy and his buddies. So it made sense to claim his best friend Paul as one of mine since he spent so much time at our house. When Billy started dating Ashley, her best friend Leigh started dating Paul. They would have bonfires in the backyard on Saturday nights that their kids grew up to carry on as tradition. Then when they all went off to college, it became a standard thing to come home on Sundays for supper, no matter what was going on. Leigh and Paul got married within a few months of Billy and Ashley, then they gave me two more beautiful girls, Cali and Grace.

This all brings to mind the day I had to bury my Billy and Ashley. I lost Leigh when I lost them because she took losing Ashley the hardest out of all of us. She started drinking from sun up to sun down. Paul would bring the girls to me while he worked. He eventually became a father figure to Jess and Meg, then later to Liza when she came to live with us. He taught them all how to fish, then how to drive. He was around to run off the boys when needed and to help Liza when she found trouble.

Liza started out staying with us while her mother worked. I took her in as one of mine when she lost her mother. Her father took to the bottle and started beating her. She was the oldest of my five girls and the toughest as well. Life didn't deal her a very fair hand, she suffered a lot of ridicule for being the "half breed" daughter of the town drunk and her mother being Pawnee Indian. Her struggles only got worse when her classmates figured out she's gay.

Jess went off to school to become a veterinarian, Cali went to work for her father in his bar and Liza joined the Army. I think she joined for the wrong reasons but she has to figure things out for herself. Just like Cali will have to figure out that she deserves better than how she allows her boyfriend to treat her. Grace is a good girl most of the time. She studies very hard but she plays just as hard too. She doesn't think I know about her sneaking out to get drunk. I worry the least about Meg, the youngest of my girls, even though she's content to work for Cali at the bar instead of going to college, I'm sure she'll find her way.

These are my girls, the highlights of my life. Though my time on this earth is coming to an end, theirs is only just beginning.