At age ten, Myra Jean had puzzled her family by saying she wanted to be a nun. “There are no Baptist nuns,” her father said. In other words, the matter was closed. To him, everything was black and white, fact or fiction. Teaching had been her compromise. Retired at 65, she could no longer become a missionary to China like Henrietta Hall Shuck. Today, she would begin proofreading at the local newspaper, dressed in her former teaching uniform, a dark skirt and white blouse. Correcting spelling and grammar was a minor but worthy mission, and it suited her talents.
Via #dailypost, #SoCS, and #CarrotRanch prompts
....Bilocalalia.... 
I’m sure the newspaper editor was very pleased to receive her corrections….I once knew a man, a Primary School headmaster who would send back to the high school his kids attended all the notes they took home with corrections.
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Summing up a whole lifetime in one paragraph sure gets my imagination going about Myra Jean. I hope she was happy. If her family had been Episcopalian, her father might have said, why yes, there are Episcopal nuns. I bet she was good at proofreading.
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Myra Jean keeps surprising me. Could there be a conversion in her future?
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🙂 Anything is possible!
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[…] rocked on the veranda, sipping sweet iced tea as they did every afternoon. “Where do you suppose Myra Jean goes every day?” mused Hecate. “Sam Johnson saw her down by the dock last week,” answered […]
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Service, it’s all service.
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Not only did I enjoy your story, I also learned a new historical figure in Henrietta Hall Shuck. I think Myra Jean carries the story of many women who are faced with black and white expectations and yet they find remarkable ways to live in the gray areas.
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Thank you. Your challenge gave me a way to develop Myra Jean’s character.
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[…] Mission by Denise Aileen DeVries […]
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[…] Kong Cemetery, but a commemorative marker stands on a prominent street corner in her old home town. Henrietta Hall Shuck was a pioneer in girls’ education and the first U.S. woman missionary to China. She was […]
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[…] Myra Jean sat proofreading, she suddenly noticed Bert Bascombe eyeing her speculatively. “I wonder,” he mused. “Could […]
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