Sneak Peek Sunday – Remembering Those Who’ve Gone Away

Memorial Day 2014

As we celebrate “Memorial Day” — or “Decoration Day”, as it was always called in my family — our thoughts will surely be with loved ones who’ve passed away.  Remembering them and their lives is a way of honoring them. Sharing them with others brings a smile…and maybe a tear.

I’d like to dedicate this post to all the World War I veterans. Both my grandfather and his brother (pictured here) fought in France.

 

We lose loved ones, and our fictional families also suffer the sorrows of death. In Not the Marrying Kind, the first book in “The Sunset Series”, the heroine, Kat Phillips, knows all too well how quickly life can end. Her older brother, Robb, died when she was fourteen.

In this “snippet”, her father talks with Joshua Barron about Robb’s death.

Excerpt from Not the Marrying Kind

“Kids went to that creek every day in the summer. One day Robb dived in, never came up again. Kat was with him. Guess she panicked a bit, wasn’t sure what to do. She jumped in, tried to find him, finally climbed out and came running back to the ranch for help.”

“He hit his head on something? Lose consciousness?”

The man’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I don’t reckon we’ll ever fully understand what happened that afternoon. He was a strong boy, a good swimmer. For some reason, he just stopped breathing. Doctor Kellerman said Robb must have blacked out, but, well, Abner wasn’t exactly sober. Never know what to make of anything Doc Kellerman tells you.” He closed the Bible. “Can’t question the Lord’s will, either. For whatever reason, He saw fit to take my son.”

“I’m truly sorry.”

“But life goes on.” Phillips paused for a moment before saying, “After Robb died, Katherine took it on herself to work even harder around the ranch. I suspect it was a way of easing her grief, maybe assuaging her conscience. To this day, I think she feels it was her fault, that she should have been able to save her brother.”

“It wasn’t her fault,” Joshua said, imaging the pain and anguish Katherine Phillips must have gone through. He hated to see anyone go through that sort of suffering. Bad enough to lose a loved one. Blaming yourself in any way only made it worse.

* * * *

You can read all of Kat’s story in “Not the Marrying Kind” – Book 1 of “The Sunset Series”

Not the Marrying Kind is now available.

Thanks for visiting today and letting me share a few thoughts with you along with an excerpt from “Not the Marrying Kind”.

 

 

 

 

Please visit the other participants in this week’s Sneak Peek Sunday.