This week I’m hosting Janet Dean with Brides of the West, M.K. Gilroy with Cuts Like a Knife, Cara Putman with A Wedding Transpires on Mackinac Island, and Karen Whiting with Stories of Faith and Courage From the Home Front. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (April 15th) evening.
Interview with the heroine from Last Minute Bride (in Brides of the West) by Janet Dean:
1. Elise Langley, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I’m planning a surprise wedding reception for my best friends, Callie and Jake. I’d be excited about putting on this party, if I weren’t forced to accept the help of Jake’s groomsman, Doctor David Wellman. David had courted me, pretending to care then left town without a word. I’ll get through the preparations somehow, but suspect this will be the longest two weeks of my life.
2. What do you do for fun?
I’m a single mom. While I work as a receptionist for the town’s doctors, my mother takes care of Katie, my eleven-month-old daughter. Playing with Katie is such fun. She’s a handful, at times, but the joy of my life and a delight.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
I dread confronting David, but won’t be able to move on until I do. Three weeks ago, David left town without explanation, leaving only a sign on the door for his patients and not one word to me. He’s back now and working with me on Callie and Jake’s wedding reception, but he hasn’t explained why he left, or why he didn’t contact me during his absence. I suspect David finally figured out what I’d tried to tell him, that I wasn’t doctor’s wife material. Still, I dread hearing the truth from his lips.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Abandonment. Katie’s father abandoned me when I told him I was pregnant. Hurt by my disgrace, my father abandoned me emotionally. Many in town did, even some at church. And then David, the man I trusted, the man who’d claimed to not care about my past, abandoned me. I thought I knew him. I was sure he loved Katie and me. How could I be so wrong?
5. What do you want out of life?
My daughter’s happiness. I want Katie to know unconditional love, to know no matter what she does, or what mistakes she makes that I love her and God loves her. Sure, I’d like to get married one day and have more children, but that would mean trusting a man. Something I can’t do.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
To please God. That means I must love and forgive others, even those who hurt me. That’s what I’m working on now.
7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
I read magazine articles and books on raising children. I used to dime novels, but no more. I have little time to read and romance has not worked out for me.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’d stop comparing myself to others. God gave each of us unique skills and traits, yet I’ve made the mistake of comparing myself to Doctor Lucas’s wife, Lenora, the epitome of respectability. But one day Lenora revealed her fears, what she saw as shortcomings, she taught me that we all live with doubts and burdens. Perhaps, just perhaps, David has some burden he’s carrying. If so, why hasn’t he explained?
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
I don’t have a pet, but I’d like to get a dog when Katie is older and we have our own place. Right now, I can’t trust her to play with an animal. Even if I could, I can’t ask my parents to take on another resident in their crowded home.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
If I could travel back to the summer I met Gaston, I’d be able to change my past, undo the sin I committed. But if I did, then I wouldn’t have my precious daughter. As much as I disappointed God, my parents and myself, I’d never trade Katie for a spotless past. I’m grateful God has forgiven me and that I’m finally able to forgive myself. When Katie’s old enough to realize the circumstances of her birth, I hope she’ll forgive me and her father and won’t be disillusioned.