#ow

Madge, her eldest sister, looked about forty, rather than thirty two. Her black dress drained her of colour; her shoulders had adopted their perpetual hunched position, which she had adopted to compensate for her height. As a child Madge had towered over her peers, stopping only when she reached five foot eleven. Lesley knew, without seeing them, that she would be wearing the usual flat shoes, the only footwear she would allow anywhere near her size eight feet. Sitting beside Madge, Pamela, her youngest sister, blonde hair flowing over her shoulders, was thankfully dressed fairly decorously in a black coat over a black pinstripe tunic dress with a high neckline. Remembering Pamela’s usual mode of dress, Lesley could only deduce that their mother must have prevailed upon her this time, in deference to the occasion. To her left Alan, at twenty four, the baby of the family, was talking in low tones to his girlfriend Erica, his fair hair and her dark locks forming a striking contrast. From Erica’s expression however, she guessed that Alan was currently on the receiving end of her infamous (and often malicious) acerbic wit. ↗

— Phyl Wright

#family

Officially, the New Testament church at an early stage took seriously their responsibility for widows who lacked family or other resources. The office of deacon was instituted initially to address this pressing need. ↗

— Carolyn Custis James

#biblical #church #deacon #widows #women

Now I start my diary of my personal plot to kill by pistol either Richard Nixon or George Wallace. ↗

— Arthur Bremer

#either #george #i #kill #nixon

White folks have controlled New Orleans with money and guns, black folks have controlled it with magic and music, and although there has been a steady undercurrent of mutual admiration, an intermingling of cultures unheard of in any other American city, South or North; although there has prevailed a most joyous and fascinating interface, black anger and white fear has persisted, providing the ongoing, ostensibly integrated fete champetre with volatile and sometimes violent idiosyncrasies. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#fear #guns #music #new-orleans #power

Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting how charming someone is. ↗

— Iris Murdoch

#chiefly #falling #forgetting #how #love

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. ↗

— A.W. Tozer

#fellowship #friendship #holiness #sanctification #unity

Will you keep this?" he asked, holding up the pendant. "Please. Don't show it to your folks. But keep it, please. I'm not asking for anything else. You're going away. God knows when I'll see you again. I can accept what you say about your feelings for me. I have to. But what harm will it do if you take this, and then at least, I'll know that something I got for you is with you. ↗

— Howard Fast

#the-immigrants #family

The dignity is in the worker, not in the job. ↗

— Howard Fast

#the-immigrants #family

I suppose I have cause you grief and misery at times, but I have never intentionally caused you embarrassment and discomfort. ↗

— Howard Fast

#the-immigrants #family

Step-parents, those fairy tale villains, Have been given a bad name. They're easy targets. When the family goes awry How easy to blame them. I was blessed by the right steps... ↗

— Eileen Granfors

#families #growing-up #step-parents #family