Something in her heart went out to the strange old barber. Rebekah loosened her hand from Joseph’s and laid it on Fogarty’s shoulder. “Are you all right, Mr. Fogarty?”
She was not sure why she called him mister; it just came out.
“You seem to know an awful lot about this.” Rebekah normally stemmed her tongue, but not today. Emboldened, she continued. “More so than any normal barber would.”
He studied the ground. Rebekah thought she saw his lower lip tremble. “That is because I have not always been a barber. And I have seen this exact malady before.”
Rebekah said nothing as they closed the gap between them and her childhood home. Thomas, having heard everything and taken it all in, had run ahead to be with their mother.
After a moment of hush, Fogarty continued. “I was a physician before.”
Before what? Rebekah bit her tongue.
“I was good at what I did. It was my life’s work. My calling from God Almighty. My attempt at being His light in this world, one patient at a time.”
Rebekah, Joseph, and Dawson remained silent.
“But I failed. I failed in the worst way a man can fail.” He sniffled. “My wife, she gave me the two children I spoke of before. My beautiful children, beautiful like their mother. She had the clotting problem, too.”
Rebekah sucked in a breath. Now everything began to come into focus. “I see,” she whispered.
“The clots plagued her like a, well, like a plague. She would fall ill like Samuel, then recover. At least for a while. Then, she would fall ill again. Each time was worse than the one before.” Fogarty looked up at her. “I should not be telling you this during your time of grief. Forgive me.”
Joseph spoke before Rebekah could. “We all grieve, Fogarty. We are here to listen to you, who gave so much to our family.”
“Thank you.” He dabbed his eyes again. “One episode was so terrible it left her crippled and disfigured. Paralyzed half of her body so that she could not walk. She could not talk. She could not feed herself, dress herself…” His sentence trailed off into the early morning dawn. “Then, not long after, another attack came. It took her life much in the same manner as it took your father’s.”
“Oh, Fogarty. I see now why you knew so much.”
He nodded. “I lived it for many, many years. Both as a physician and as a husband.” He thought for a moment. “So, I quit. I quit doctoring and became a barber. After all, barbers do some doctoring from time to time, but nobody expects them to be experts in their field. Which I was not. What kind of expert would let his wife die?”
“That is not your fault. We do not understand why these things happen,” Rebekah said.
They had reached the Stoll homestead without realizing it. The lot of them stood at the bottom of the stairs. Even the house itself looked sad.
Fogarty reached into his pocket and produced a brownish piece of fabric. “Elnora said this was gripped in his hand. She remembered that he had been looking for it to bring to you.”
Joseph looked closely. “What is it?”
“I don’t rightly—” Fogarty said.
Rebekah sniffled. “It is a piece of linen that was going to be an apron. Instead, Pa and I made coffee with it and stained it. We were just talking about that.” She swallowed back the emotion that threatened to overwhelm her and turned to face Fogarty.
“Few people come down to earth to truly do God’s work,” Rebekah said. “And you are the most genuine one of them that I have ever had the pleasure to know.”
“A shining light in a world of darkness,” Joseph said.
“And life will go on, even when it hurts. All will be well,” she said. She clutched the stained fabric to her chest and knew in that moment it was time to start another quilt, a quilt dedicated to the memory of the best fater that this world, Englischer or Amish, had ever seen. This delicate, stained fabric that smelled faintly of coffee would be her first square. “As long as you can see the light.”
Other Books by Sara Harris
Historical Fiction
A Heart on Hold (An Everlasting Heart #1)
A Heart Broken (An Everlasting Heart #2)
A Heart at Home (An Everlasting Heart #3)
A Heart Forever Wild (An Everlasting Heart #4)
Christian Historical Fiction
The Calling
Amish Fiction
Rebekah’s Quilt (Rebekah’s Keepsakes #1)
Katie’s Plain Regret (Amish Journeys #1)
Middle Grade Fiction
The Apache and the Pale Face Soldiers (The Saga of Indian Em’ly #1)
On the Colorado Trail (The Saga of Indian Em’ly #2)
The Orphanage (The Saga of Indian Em’ly #3)
Journey Home (The Saga of Indian Em’ly #4)
Picture Books
Little Spoon
Chunky Sugars
Inspirational Thriller
House of Madness
Nonfiction for Young Readers
The ABCs of Texas Plants
The ABCs of Oklahoma Plants
The Big Bad Wolf Really Isn’t So Big and Bad
