Photo by Danie Franco on Unsplash
Dear Aunt Hattie. Grandmother, aunt, preacher, teacher all tied up in one.
Aunt Hattie’s first prayer in Angel Sister:
Pray with me right now, Aunt Hattie. For Victor. And the girls.” Kate’s mother paused a moment and then went on. “Especially Kate. She’s picked up some of the load I can’t seem to make myself shoulder.”
In the front room, Kate pulled in her breath.
“Don’t you be worryin’ none about that child. She’s got some broad shoulders. Here, grab hold of my hands.” Aunt Hattie’s voice changed, got a little louder as if she wanted to make sure the Lord could hear her plain. “Our holy Father who watches over us up in heaven. May we always honor ever’ living day you give us. We praise you for lettin’ us have this very day right now. And for sending us trials and tribulations so that we can learn to lean on you.”
She paused a moment as if considering those tribulations. Then she went on. “Help our Victor. You knows what he needs better than me or even your sweet child, Nadine here. Turn him away from the devil’s temptations and bring him home to his family. Not just his feet but his heart too. And strengthen that family and watch over that family. Increase their joy and decrease their sorrow. Especially our Katherine Reece. Put your hand over top her and keep her from wrong.”
Aunt Hattie meets Jay Tanner and tells him a thing or two in Small Town Girl.
“You thinkin’ the Lord can’t use you?” Aunt Hattie stood back and put her hands back on her hips to give Jay a fierce stare.
“I’m thinking he wouldn’t want to. I’m not good enough for that.”
“Ain’t none of us good enough. We’s all broken vessels that the Lord can make whole to do whatever he intends us to do.” Aunt Hattie narrowed her eyes on him. “You just keep in mind, Jay Tanner, that the Lord can hit a mighty straight lick with a mighty crooked stick.”
Aunt Hattie had a way of raising her eyes toward the sky and talking to God like she could see him sitting right there on his throne chair, bent down listening.
In Small Town Girl, the family asks Aunt Hattie to pray after they first hear the news on the radio about the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Aunt Hattie raised her skinny arms with palms flat toward the ceiling as she looked up and began praying.
“Dear loving and gracious and understanding Lord. I’s knowing you is lookin’ down on us with loving kindness. And we thank you that you is right here with us during this hard time. We know your lovin’ arms is reaching out to us wantin’ to draw us close to you so’s we can lean on your strength and not our own. We has trouble with that, dear Lord, time and time again. Not trustin’ you the way we should. We’s for sure gonna trust you now with this evil happening and all the evil happenings that’s been overtakin’ this old world. But we know you is in control and that in your good time you will make things right.”
Aunt Hattie paused, but nobody said anything. They knew she wasn’t through until she came out with an amen.
“We’s some of us got a feelin’ of fear down here. We’s scared of what we’s looking at the same as we were back when our boys went off to that other war when you took my Bo on to his heavenly home. Now here we are again. Trembling and shakin’ afore you. Protect those boys over there in that Pearl Harbor where bombs is falling. Give them and us here too, give all your children the courage we is gonna need in the dark days ahead. Let us know that not even the deepest darkness can keep your lovin’ light from shining through to us. Amen and amen.”
Aunt Hattie didn’t jig around the truth. (Truths she shared with Kate in Love Comes Home.)
~Aunt Hattie’s voice was in Kate’s head. Katherine Reece, you is always overthinking ever’thing. Leave a few things up to the Lord. And accept the plenty of blessings he rains down on you.
~“You has always wanted to hold everybody in your hands and be the strong one.” Aunt Hattie shook her head a little. “But there is times when each and ever’ one of us has to realize how weak we really are. That’s when a body learns to lean on the strength of the Lord. Compared to him, we is all weak as kittens.”
Truths she shared with Tori in Love Comes Home
Aunt Hattie’s voice whispered through her thoughts. Ain’t never no use a-worrying. Praying, that’s what you’s need to be doing.
But prayers sometimes just floated away into the dark nowhere and weren’t answered. If Aunt Hattie heard her saying that, she’d give Tori a real talking to. Prayers aren’t like being in a candy store where you’s can pick out your answer like choosin’ your favorite sweets. Prayer gets you through when you’s thinkin’ there is no way through.
She opened Clay’s eyes to a different way to pray in Love Comes Home.
The minute Aunt Hattie walked into a house, she brought calm with her. Clay’s mother said Aunt Hattie had healing hands, but Clay wondered if it wasn’t her healing prayers that mattered more. The first time he heard her pray was a revelation to Clay. He didn’t know a person could just look up and start talking to the Lord. His mother prayed, but she did it in her quiet corner. And he never heard his father pray out loud, although he was a churchgoing man. But when Aunt Hattie prayed, it was like she pulled up a chair to the Lord’s kitchen table to ask him for a few helpings of mercy. Helpings she had full confidence of getting.
Aunt Hattie could out preach most anybody.
Amen and amen.
I wanted to share more about Aunt Hattie in this week when I’m re-visiting Rosey Corner. Some readers think I have too much praying, too much Scripture in my stories, but some like the stories because of the Scripture and prayers. I hope you do too and that you enjoyed walking through a bit of the stories with Aunt Hattie. She could say a prayer. It’s a good thing to just look up and start talking with the Lord.
Remember if you leave a comment on this post or last Sunday’s post, you get an entry in a drawing to have the chance to win a copy of Angel Sister or one of the other Rosey Corner books, Small Town Girl or Love Comes Home. You get another entry if you commented on Sunday’s post and now comment again. It’s a fast giveaway. I’ll draw for the winner Sunday.
So, do you like characters in the stories you read to pray or remember Scripture?
Did you like meeting Aunt Hattie in my Rosey Corner stories or here on this post?