Carolina Dream
by
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He wiped his hands on a dish towel and asked her to sit down. “Mackenzie, I told you your mom’s and my love story, and it was the truth, because I would never lie to you. As you know, your mother and I met on a beautiful sunny day, at a horse show in Spain.” He smiled, “We fell in love, and stayed in love, because of our love for horses. I wanted to come to America and work at a big horse farm, so I answered ads in the paper. Finally, one showed an interest. I guess they liked that I’d been raised around horses on a very well-known horse farm near Granada, Spain. They figured I had the experience they needed, so they offered me a job right here on Sunrise Farm … the farm where we live now.”
“Papa, I know all this. Tell me something I don’t know.” Then she thought of another question, “By the way, why did you take a job at a farm in Camden, South Carolina? There are others you might have chosen.”
“To tell you the truth, Mac, it was the only one that answered my application. The others ignored it. So, I guess you can say it was God that led us here, and I’ve not regretted it for a second.”
She smiled and nodded, “Now, tell me the rest of the story ... the part I don’t know.”
He frowned, but had laughter in his eyes, “Be patient Mackenzie, I’m getting to it.” He took a sip of water then continued, “As I’ve said many times before, your mom and I fell in love in Spain, and we were married there. What you don’t know is my parents disliked your mother intensely. In fact, they hated her.”
His daughter was shocked, “Why? She was the nicest person I’ve ever known. How could they hate her?”
“They didn’t like your mother because she was not Catholic. Back then, Catholics could not marry anyone who was not Catholic, because they’d be ex-communicated if they did. Ex-communicated means they would be thrown out of the church. My parents were very old-fashioned, and thought it was the worst thing that could ever happen to a family. They thought marrying outside the Catholic church meant their son or daughter would go to hell when they died.”
“Gosh, that’s pretty drastic. So, you left because they didn’t like Mom?”
“I left because they told me they didn’t want to ever see me again ... that I was dead to them because of what I had done.”
Mackenzie was alarmed, “Papa, how could they do that? They were your parents! They were supposed to love you no matter what!”
He returned his attention to the letter, “Since this letter is in Spanish, I’ll translate it for you as I read. My father started out with ‘Dear Son’, which surprised me since he’d basically disowned me.” He continued reading, “I know you write to your brother, Angelo, and he told me your wife died recently. I offer you my prayers, and have been lighting candles, in hopes you find peace with your loss. Your mother died two years ago, so I know how you must feel. My biggest regret in life is that I never contacted you, and never got to meet my granddaughter, but I know her name is Mackenzie. Angelo showed me pictures of her each time you sent them, and she’s beautiful. Give her a hug from me, and tell her I have loved her in my heart since the time she was first born. She’s my only grandchild. I am very sick and will not be around much longer, but I want to give you a gift, in hopes you’ll forgive this old man his stupid, stubborn ways.” Miguel read further, but silently, Don’t read this part to your daughter, but I am sending you something I love, in hopes you will think of me sometimes. Your gift will arrive in about two weeks ... and bring a horse trailer with you when you go to pick it up. You’ll get another letter from me when it is delivered. Her dad started reading aloud again, “I’m thinking of you. Te amo tanto mucho, Su padre.”
“Papa, what does the Spanish part mean?”
He looked over at her with tears in his eyes, “It means I love you very much, and it was signed Your father.”
All she said was “Awwwwwww, how sweet,” then added, “It’s about time he told you he loved you.” Then she asked, “What do you think he’s sending you?”
“Whatever it is Mac, I’ll treasure it, because it’ll be from my papa.”
“How can you forgive him for driving you and Mom from their lives?”
“God tells us to forgive and helps us do it. It hurt a lot when it first happened, but the pain gradually went away when we had you, and a wonderful life here with the horses. Now, I just feel bad that he missed out on loving you, and seeing you grow up. So, the loss is really his.”
She remarked hotly, “What about me? I lost out, too. I never even got to meet him!”
“Punkin, your loss is part of the tragedy, because he loved horses like we do, and you would’ve been crazy about him. But yes, your loss was terrible as well, because you never got to know each other.”
“Why does God tell us to forgive people who hurt us like that? It’s not what we feel like doing.”
“When we forgive someone, we’re being obedient to what the Bible tells us to do. God knows forgiving someone helps us to release anger we sometimes hold inside, because it frees us up to focus on other things, like loving each other, and our precious horses.”
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About the Book
Julie lived on a very exclusive Thoroughbred horse farm in Camden, South Carolina, where her father was the manager. When her mother died, it set an unusual set of events in motion. Her dad received a letter of condolence and apology from his father, who lived in Granada, Spain. He had banished his son from his life fifteen years earlier. His apology for having no contact with his son was accompanied by a gift, a beautiful Andalusian mare. Surprisingly, having the new horse resulted in his firing. The story includes much prayer, joy, and tragedy, including the burning of their stable by the disgruntled former employer. The thread throughout this book is this family’s trust in God and their faith that all things work together for the good.
About the Author
Connie Kuester, a former attorney, lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She fondly remembers her horse crazy girlfriends and reading many, many books about horses. She uses those experiences, and those as a mother, to craft her stories. She wanted to write books about horses, that were appealing to young people, and would incorporate the tenets of her faith. Her stories are action-packed and full of human interest, with Christianity slipped in through conversation and remembering what she learned in church, not preachy prose. She has provided questions at the end of each book, so a parent or facilitator will find it easy to get their readers to discuss what they’ve read.