Spiritually Yours

By Charlotte Kendrick

Desire was raised by her paternal grandmother after her mother passed away when she was three months old, and her father passed away when she was two. She never knew her mothers family as they had disowned her mother when she married her father because he didnt measure up to the DuBois standards. When she was recuperating from a fall in the hospital, the absentee family visit her, and they are reunited. The sad history of their past comes to light, and many heartfelt days turn into a wonderful event for all, including Desires visions of ancestors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524698041

Charlotte Kendrick

Writing allows Charlotte Kendrick's imagination to blossom into the creation of worlds and characters unending. Her motivation comes from her religion and family. She also enjoys genealogy and watercolor painting. She has two other books online Coeur De Foudre and The Tara Scheme. After traveling to England several times and becoming friends with some Brits, she began to hear more and more stories about World War II. The conditions they lived under and shared with her, made it became clear that she needed to write about it. Their resilience and charm with no self-pity for what they went through made an everlasting impression on her, and she dedicates this book to them.

Book preview

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

© 2017 Charlotte Kendrick. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/29/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5246-9805-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-9804-1 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Preface

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Endnotes

Preface

We all have one thing in common and that is our heritage. Most of us are interested to some degree where our ancestors came from, their religion, and occupation and sometimes if we are fortunate to find their personal history and if we are truly blessed, pictures of what they looked like.

I had the desire to explore and imagine how it might have been with my Huguenot progenitors, since I do not have their personal journals or letters and only a minimal history of them.

With the research I have done, I found that they endured great trials and tribulations just trying to stay alive and worship God the way they felt when they interpreted the Bible.

I also felt it was important to show how connections to our ancestors never end and we will be with them again someday, and that they are not far away from us today.

Life continues with our descendents and I hope I will all be able to leave them my legacy of thousands of names in documented pedigrees and family group sheets and allow them to know where their roots originated.

The Huguenot lines I am most familiar with are my sixth great grandparents,1 Daniel DuVal, and his wife Philadelphia DuBois who sailed to Virginia in the early 1700’s, on the Nassau, from2, London, England, and settled in Richmond, Virginia.

My line comes through their son Benjamin, who married Ann Kay.

The historical research for this book has been at times heart wrenching. I am saddened when I see any group of people that are so cruel and merciless enough to murder innocent people just because they have different religious beliefs but, we have those same types of people today that are out to murder us if we do not conform to their religion, they are called terrorist. The Huguenots had their own terrorist, their kings, one of them was Louis XIV and his military called the 3Dragonnades, the Catholic Church and some Cardinals. I need to note here, I am hoping that my ancestor, Cardinal DuBois was not one of them for my research shows he was mainly involved with his job as King Louis XIV’s secretary of state.

I thoroughly enjoyed combining some historic events with true characters, such as my ancestors, Daniel DuVal and Philadelphia DuBois and her uncle Cardinal Guillame DuBois, who was the brother of her father, Dr. Jean Dubois.

The dream sequence with Philadelphia and her uncle, Cardinal DuBois, dressing her up as a boy is a family oral story handed down and no one knows for sure if it is true but it does portray a very tender picture of how we would have liked to portray the Cardinal protecting his niece and her finance’.

I have combined my DuBois and DuVal ancestors with modern fictional descendents designed to reach into the past and tell a small part of my heritage

The true historical accounts are noted and I am responsible for this fictional story with inserted historical Huguenot events and my family tree located on various websites and Family Search.org.

The ebb and flow of our ancestor’s spinning wheel have woven threads of love, pain, anger, failure, success, and sacrifices interlaced with golden flecks of depicted lessons that we may use in our lives today. The uncompleted fabric they left for us to continue and place our patterns on their generational cloths to add our piece of history to theirs with a better life we hope than they had to endure.

With their legacy cloth, we may sew coats of wisdom, strength, and gratitude to use that hindsight, to benefit our lives today or ignore; it is up to us.

History does repeat itself and if we use wisdom gained from our knowledge of their past, we may prevent despicable things from being repeated today. We may prevent many injustices to be handed down to our descendants and that information we gather about history would be wasted if we do not learn from them and to know when and how to use them in our lives today.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to and with appreciation to all of my ancestors, family, my best friend, Buddy and Darla Dow.

Chapter 1

The sea washed gracefully upon the sharp rocks as the gentle wind orchestrated swells of blue water creating glistening white foam caps into lulling sounds of the English Channel, with it’s familiar aroma from the white beach adding to the refreshing and soothing scene.

This was a favorite place of the lone figure perched on the well worn rock chair she had assembled so long ago as a child that she had made especially on that particular spot to have the perfect view of the splendor of the southeastern shores of England.

Dover was the only home she had known. Desire’ DuBois Goddard, was an orphan. Her mother had passed away when she was a year old from a lingering illness and her father died suddenly in a boating accident when she was only three years old.

Her father’s widowed mother, Eloise Goddard raised her and did so with all the love and tenderness anyone could ask for, and she was always a happy but introverted child.

She spent her childhood solace by choice resulting not only being an only child but also from the grandmother’s ample supply of literature. The all-consuming exciting world of the old classics, biographies, history and some modern authors for a well-rounded balance, the young woman preferred to be alone.

This was her first summer after graduating from Oxford University with a degree in Humanities. She was relaxing after enduring the past several stressful months of her self-imposed study marathon to make sure she would not have a single question that she could not answer.

The sun was warming the rocks to the point of becoming uncomfortable so she decided to end her letter reading for the day. She finished one of the letter treasures from her mother, who had left them for her to read as a connection to her infant daughter. They were written from her sick bed just after Desire’ was born and during the year before her death and, she always ended them, ‘Spiritually Yours, Mother. "Desire continued re-reading them through out her life visualizing how they were written to her from the confinement of her mother’s sick bed.

The ailing mother wanted to leave something personal to her only child to connect with her even though it would not be in this mortal life. She wanted to leave some information about her self and her infant’s father, and their personal histories and family trees. She also wanted to share with her some advice, insights, and experiences. There would also be thoughts, quotes and a very thorough book list the daughter would eventually have them all read. It made her feel good to know she had complied with her mother’s wishes.

Anna DuBois, an American student, married Paul Goddard after meeting the Englishman at Oxford University where they fell in love, and married within two months of their first date. Her parents who lived in New Rochelle, New York, promptly disowned her for the sudden wedding without not only their consent but never having the chance to meet the man she fell in love with; Anna would never see her parents again. The marriage had been happy and fulfilling and she never allowed the severed ties from her family to become an issue.

When she fell ill, her only thoughts were of her child and for this reason, the letters allowed the dying mother to have the ability to connect and express her love and an absentee tutoring. These heartfelt letters would provide the opportunity to allow the infant to grow up to know who her American families were and it was important to let her daughter know where her mother grew up and to include know how much she loved the child’s father.

The pain and anguish was evident in her mother’s letters even though it had not been on purpose. Anna would never knowingly have left her infant with the burden of her own sorrow concerning the coldness of her parent’s disaffection. This would haunt the young mother until her dying day.

Growing up with the ingrained inadequate feelings of rejection and loneliness, Desire’ had never been interested in glamour nor the desire to delve into make up or fashionable clothing. Her only personal grooming habits were exercise and eating well. She allowed her shinny dark hair to grow long and trimmed it occasionally herself and always felt there was no hope for her to ever be attractive as her best friend. She would continually through the years compare her dark brown eyes to Gillian’s large hazel green ones. No, she would comment to herself,’ I shall never be one of those girls boys would whistle at as she would observe from time to time walking home from school. ‘These feelings about herself were accepted as an inevitable fact and she didn’t feel the need to change, so she put all her energies into her education she had just completed but had left her with a despondent feeling that was almost overwhelming and surprising.

She tried to convince herself it was a normal reaction after all the intense years of study, tests, and stress about grades.

Desire’ refolded one of the cherished age worn correspondences and tucked it under her arm as she stood up to return back up the hill to her grandmother’s cottage. Looking down on the beach, she could see and hear children singing and running below her on the sandy shore.

Suddenly her foot slipped on a wet rock, losing her balance as her arm flew up unlocking the letter and the breeze snatched it up into the air. She quickly reached for the treasured paper but lost her footing and sailed quietly into the air in the same direction it flew.

Oh no, look. It’s Desire’, she’s falling. One of the children yelled that had been playing on the beach pointed up to the falling young woman.

Let’s go, maybe we can break her fall. One of the boys shouted as he ran towards her.

They were too late to soften the fall and found the crumpled figure from the hard fall before they could reach her.

Go quickly for help. We will stay here with her. Now, get going. The frightened boy yelled. Don’t’ move her she may have broken bones."

Desire’ had landed in a curled position on the sandy beach beside the letter she had tried to rescue causing her to loose her balance on the slippery rocks.

Eloise Goddard released her shaky grip from the cold gray bar at the foot of the hospital bed that held her sleeping dark haired granddaughter. The intensive care unit reeked with overpowering aromas of antiseptics that made the grandmother even more aware of the seriousness of Desire’s injuries and did little to calm her fear she would never see the vivacious young woman physically able to walk again.

Oh, Doctor Wentworth, please tell me, how bad are her injuries? She asked as the tall youthful man that quietly slipped into the dimly lit room and made his way to the unconscious young woman resting peacefully.

We’re not sure, we have to wait for the tests and we will need more before we will know the extent of her injuries. We are going to take her down tomorrow morning for X-Rays, an MRI and maybe a CAT scan. I do not want to move her too much I am still not sure about broken bones. I think her left leg is broken, and maybe the left arm as well. The rest of her body seems to be all right. As you can see, there are several bruises and lacerations from the rocks during the fall. She landed on her left side. Her neck seems to be normal and I think her back as well, we will know more tomorrow after she has more time for the body to reveal what we need to know. She did receive a severe blow to the head. This is the concern now and will determine how long she may be unconscious. Sorry I cannot give you more information now, but as soon as we can we will let you know more. For now, she seems to be peaceful which is good for the seriousness of the fall. That was quite a tumble. He said gently probing Desire’s head and neck.

When will you know more about the tests results? I would like to begin contacting her family that lives here and out of the country. Eloise said with a concerned fixed gaze on her granddaughter.

Hopefully by evening, I will check now to see what has come back. Are you going to be here, or home?

Here, I won’t leave her until she becomes conscious.

That maybe quite awhile even weeks, maybe more. These cases are never the same. I cannot predict anything now except to tell you all her vital signs are very good, and can say for sure now is that she is resting comfortably. I will contact you tomorrow. I would have someone bring you things to stay for a while; you may stay in the next bed until we know more. I will give the nurses and other doctors’ instructions about your stay here. Do you have a friend or family that can bring you what you need?

Yes, I shall phone my friend, she will be able to get in my house to pack a bag for me. Thank you doctor, I am grateful to be close to Desire’ until she is conscious.

Eloise started the process of phoning the list of names and numbers she had written down to be sure to let them know about Desire’s accident. Parts of the names on the list were family she had never met included the DuBois family in New Rochelle, New York, and the other part of the family in France.

Others on the list were the Goddard’s who lived in London and Oxford and local family in Dover, and of course her granddaughter’s best friend, Gillian, first of all.

With a sigh, she started dialing the numbers and repeated the tragedy to each one with her voice becoming weaker as did her heart to the point she could no longer speak.

Eloise slipped the cell phone into her pink rumpled sweater she had lived in the past two days. With one last thought, she pulled the phone out to phone her best friend Amy, to have her bring extra clothes and things she would need for the next few days so she could take a hot shower and try to get some sleep, or at least try to relax in the bed next to her unconscious granddaughter.

Chapter 2

Robert DuBois Sr. subconsciously ended the daunting phone call from Eloise Goddard, informing him about the accident and the uncertain condition of his niece, Desire’ staring straight ahead at the paintings on the wall in his luxurious office in the museum that still had the aroma of the new forest green leather furniture he’d recently purchased.

He had never met his niece even though she was the daughter of his deceased and only sister, Anna. His mother, Constance, received letters all through the years from Eloise that had updated the truant grandmother on the forsaken grandchild’s progress in life.

There had been no mention of Desire’ until Rob, his son was almost out of college, when his mother finally revealed to him the surprise he had an estranged family member living in England. The agonizing pain of loosing his sister years earlier was dreadful enough but the complete truth that there had been