Another Message from Heaven

What could be a better way to escape the gloom of a March Saturday than to join a table of friends at the 3rd Annual Friends of the Kettle Falls Library Book Lovers Tea? My friend, Nancy Folkestad, as a table hostess, prepared cucumber, chicken salad and egg salad finger sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, and a variety of cakes and nibbles, including fresh blueberries and strawberries. We sipped a delicious oolong and I treated myself to a couple of servings of Lady Grey, as well.

I'd been invited to be the guest local author, and since Chicken Soup for the Soul published Messages from Heaven last week, I chose my story, "The Unforgotten," to read to the assemblage. This was my first time as a presenter at such a function, and I enjoyed listening to the stories of others' experiences with psychics as I signed copies of the book.

Our table of six coincidentally were all members of the Colville Branch AAUW board, so we could do some planning for future events during the interludes between readings from a book by a local historian, Ines Helmstetter, and the music provided by wonderful young piano students from Pancoast School of Music.

Most surprisingly, I finally found out what the stone is in the ring Ken gave me for Christmas several years ago, not long after we moved to Washington State. One of my AAUW friends asked me if it's Ellensburg Blue Agate...I looked online last night, and apparently it is. Ken and I stayed in Ellensburg once, and he hadn't time to shop. I think he may have bought the ring at the same jewelry store in Colville where he got my gold unicorn lapel pin. But how great at last knowing what the stone is.

Since I allude in "The Unforgotten" to Ken's belief in the paranormal, I'm guessing somehow he arranged for me to receive this information on a day when I publicly remembered his cheerfulness during his final days. Another message from heaven!