The Final Goodbye © By: J.L. Jacobs

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Breathless

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Breathless

August 24, 1891

It took much longer than I anticipated to heal from my surgery but now I am feeling very little pain and I am much stronger. My parents told me about two weeks after my surgery that my dad was retiring from the bank he owns and they were going to be staying down in Texas with me, Travis, and the children. Travis had absolutely no objections in the matter and even offered them the cabin to stay in which sort of came as a shock to me. Since my parents are used to a much more lavish lifestyle, I was completely shocked when they happily agreed with using the cabin as their new home. Then as Rachel was packing up to head back to Wellington with Jocelyn, she announced that she was coming back soon with Joseph and they were coming to live down there as well. I think my jaw hit the floor. Does everyone really like Texas that much better? Mother told me fondly that she believed it was that and the fact they all wanted to be here as one big family because it was too hard to live so far away from me and my new family. She said they didn't want to miss out on any more memories and seeing Madeline grow. Father has hired a bank manager to take over the operations, and as of this journal entry, he is officially retired and living off of his pension, but he still owns the bank. I guess he had planned on giving over ownership to Joseph but after Rachel made the decision to move down here, well, that blew my Father's plans. But he did not seem one bit upset about retiring. Actually, he has been in his glory here with helping Travis out with the ranch.

Mother and Mrs. Cox are the best of friends and they have been wonderful with helping me out with the children. Rachel and Joseph finally arrived just last week and they are settling into their new home not far away from the ranch just outside of Turtle Creek heading towards Dallas. Rachel visits for hours each day and Joseph is now working full time for Travis. I never imagined in my wildest of dreams that life would have turned out quite like this. Everything has been so wonderful that I am tearing up from the happiness of it all. Tomorrow Travis has something planned and I cannot figure out for the life of me what it could possibly be. But it has to be something big because I overheard him tell my mother that she was to take me into Dallas, along with Rachel, and we were to all buy ourselves a formal dress. I am guessing that we will all be spending the afternoon or evening at the Opera house and I am really excited at the prospect! I haven't worn a formal dress in so long now that I forgot how beautiful I used to feel whenever I have worn one. This is the first time Travis has ever encouraged me to buy such an extravagant dress before. It's not as if I have ever needed one though. When I asked him if he had a color preference, he replied quickly with "a light champagne color as it will suit your hair and tan." Then he picked me up and kissed me full on the mouth while twirling me around in circles. I was positively giddy with love in that moment over seeing the sparkle of happiness in his light green eyes. We made gentle love just after and it was the first time we had done so since I had given birth. Or even since my surgery for that matter. I had forgotten how pleasurable Travis can make me feel whenever we are that intimate with one another. Oh how I love that man! Everything in my life just seems too good to be true! I have everyone I love, except for Maybelle and her little family, right here in Texas with me and it feels like a page out of a penny romance novel. The only part I do not like is my weekly visits with the doctors's May and Halsted while I am continuing my cancer treatments with them. When I asked them back in June how my surgery went, they seemed to be avoiding the subject by only telling me that they would continue my treatments, and that they were able to remove more of the growths but not all of them. So I can only surmise that the cancer is still present. If it had gotten worse then they would have told me so, I am sure of it. --- Sophia A. Ewing