Uncle Douglas

Sunday Suit
courtesy photobucket.com

Most families have problems at times, and my Mother-in-Law, Bea had a BIG one.  She rightly suspected her husband of having an affair, and she paid him back her way. 

A week went by and she finally phoned me from the Gray hound bus depot requesting that I come get her as she was back in town.  On the way to our place she asked me to pick up Douglas and bring him too as she wanted to spend a few days with us.  Uncle Douglas was 12 and the same age as our son.  It would be good for Doug to be with us and it looked like to be a long while.  His older brother David stayed with his dad by choice.

Bea loved to shop and she and I went to the bargain room at our nearby department store.  There I spotted a boys navy blue suit with shirt and tie size 12 and I knew it would fit Douglas and the price was right.  Taking it home, I hung it on the kitchen door so he could see it when he arrived home from school. 

Yes, he knew the suit was his and now he had something nice to wear to church. 

Although we usually drove our car, the church was in walking distance, and Douglas liked to walk there.  One Sunday he met one of his friends on the way to church.  His friend decided to tease Doug as he looked so nice in his blue suit carrying his Bible.  Boys often show their jealousy in mean ways.

The boy using his sing song voice said, “Are you going to Church, little boy?”  Douglas answered him by saying, “Yes I am - - and that is where you should be going too.”  I was so proud of him when he told me about it later.

Douglas lived with us for five years, even after Bea and her husband were reunited about a year later.  I kept making excuses as to why Douglas should stay with us.  Bea agreed and said he could stay.

Those years were important and unlike his brother David, he chose to not drink or smoke.  Douglas’s decision to follow Jesus did not waver even at age 17 when he moved home to live with his parents. 

He had asked my permission to move, and I told him, I would allow it, but that it was not a wise choice.  I said, “You will stop going to church, and you will drop out of High School.”   He answered back, “Oh no, I won’t do those things.”  But he did.   

Soon after, he began to work for Robert and was important to our roofing business because we could trust him.

So it was for five years we had five teenagers in our home, our three and two more.

But that is another story.

This post has been linked with Joan Davis at: Sharing His Beauty

Also shared at: Tell Me a Story  http://letmetelluastory.blogspot.com/