The Sunday School Room They Locked
I came to Bethel Grove that first Sunday in July carrying two dozen glazed donuts in a pink box, a jug of red Kool-Aid, and… Read more
The Stranger Who Tended My Son’s Grave
I want to tell you something I have never said out loud, not even to the women at church who used to call me a… Read more
The Recipe Tin They Called Junk
Deanna Wick picked up my mother’s recipe tin with two fingers, like it might leave a mark on her, and set it down on the… Read more
The Quilts She Sewed for the Grieving
I had threaded a needle ten thousand times in that church, and not once did I imagine the day a man would stand at the… Read more
The Promise A Five Year Old Kept
Renfrow Building Supply has opened at six forty five every weekday morning for forty one years, ten minutes before the coffee finishes dripping in the… Read more
The Shawl Ministry They Tried To End
At seven o’clock on a Tuesday morning I was sitting in the third pew from the back of Grinnell Community Church with a canvas bag… Read more
