From the White House to the Amish by Katrina Hoover Lee

Author:Katrina Hoover Lee [Lee, Katrina Hoover]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TGS International

24

Edges of Grief

“I don’t want to be one of those people who stays in Washington for fifty years while telling people they are living here only temporarily,” Tom said, shoving back his dinner plate. “Let’s move home after I finish my time and get discharged. Dad needs more people to be around him anyway.”

“I like it here,” Sharon said. “I like the social life and the energy of the city. Do you think we will come back someday?”

Tom shrugged. “I don’t want to. This is where I was when Mom had her stroke.”

“You can’t let that destroy you, Tom! I know you loved your mom, but she wouldn’t want you to give up on life because of what happened!”

“You don’t understand; you still have your mom.”

“I’m not saying it’s not terrible!” Sharon said. “I wouldn’t like it if my mom—”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Tom interrupted. He got up and left the kitchen.

Jeff had begun toddling around the apartment now. As Tom watched, he stepped, toppled, plopped in a heap, and got up to go at it again.

If only I could do that, Tom thought. Just get up and dust myself off and try believing God again like Mom always wanted me to do. But he did not, and a deep despondency settled over his life.

As Tom and Sharon began to pack, they could sense the growing chasm between them.

They left Washington, D.C., on a warm spring morning when the cherry trees were in full bloom. The birds and the buses woke up together, chirping and honking, each in their own language. Tom opened the back door of the pale green Renault and threw in their luggage. The little Renault was a good car for getting around the city; he hoped it had the stamina to make it all the way back to Indiana. Sharon and Jeff soon fell asleep, and Tom was left with his thoughts.

Tom drove to the end of Congress Street and turned left at the large Hebrew cemetery as he had every morning when he drove to work. This morning, however, the cemetery seemed to be staring at him and his sleeping wife and son. Each of the orderly grave markers looked at him knowingly. You thought God did great things, didn’t you, Tom? We know the truth. Just listen to us, Tom. Your mom is with all the others—cold, in a box in the ground.

As they passed St. Elizabeth Hospital a while later, Tom’s thoughts took another dark turn. What good are hospitals anyway?

Farther east, the mighty Capitol building would soon be alive with the members of Congress coming and going as if nothing was wrong in the world. Richard Nixon would soon take his seat as president of the Senate, as vice presidents always did. Although Eisenhower had been vague about whether he would ask Nixon to stay on as vice president in the second term, he had finally committed. Everyone would be watching Nixon, wondering how he would do if something happened to the President.

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