Rita Liberacki Luks' Stories
As soon as she was out of the room Andy asked, "Sweet, isn't she? And pretty, too." I hoped the kids would recognize this as one of those rare times we talked about; when it was better to tell a little white lie than speak the truth
- Who was worse? My Dad for setting a bear trap to protect his own property or being a thief?
- My 15-year-old mind didn't want to believe any of this happened. There must have been some other choice.
- The day we made an offer to buy the cabin, the dock was piled on the bank but from the edge of the lake we could see the sandy bottom stretching far out into shallow water.
- When we needed a doctor in the daytime, we made the fourteen and a half-mile trip to Caro. At the eleven-mile mark, just as the car rounded the curve at Tagget's corner, it was time to sing out, "Three and a half miles to Caro!"
- Why is this absolutely all I remember?
- We certainly didn't understand that marriage had much more to do with growing and changing together, sharing dreams, joys, disappointments and triumphs, caring for and comforting each other and compromise, all bound together with ever changing love
- Lots of people, like the Hertzlers that went to our church were Germans. It didn't make sense that bad people would be in church.
- "My Grandpa's gonna die today. That's why we can't go in the house."
- "Chad spent the next afternoon printing note cards with his cousin Beth. That same evening his Dad died."
- Mother didn't like carnations. She could smell them in her mind from Joe's funeral.
- Some day, when we are ready to own up to our wickedness, this will make a great story!
- You can't ask any questions about the secrets you over hear when the adults think they are things you need to be protected from.
- I just can't wait for Judy to go away to college."
- So there we were, the four of us feeling like little kids. Acting like kids. It was a perfect day together in spite of the circumstances, or perhaps, because of the circumstances. The bond between of the four of us had never been stronger.
- I wanted the story to end this way when it was being played out, but at 15, I lacked the courage to make this happen. The situation was just too intimidating.
- When I was young, that meant our yard, or Sellers yard on one side of us or Uncle John's on the other. If we heard the steam engine whistle, we could run down three houses past my Uncle's and wave to the engineer from Gaeth's yard,—and then the caboose man—before scampering back closer to home. It seemed like a big wide world with lots of choices.
- "Mrs. Liberacki, do you have any valuables with you tonight?" "Yes. My precious jewels," she quickly replied.
- I looked at her and thought about how much my mother had been influenced by her mother just as I am influenced my mine.
