“The RoseBouquet”

(Profile of a character in my novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses)

She was orphaned as a child in Australia. At thirteen she had grown not only withdrawn, but bitter against God and the world when she was raped in a deserted stretch of woods through which she usually walked from school to her foster home.

Afraid to trust anyone, especially men, she had locked herself into a world of books, a safe and private realm where she could have adventure without involvement. Diligent and thorough, she earned degrees in literature and history while still in her twenties, and she wrote very articulate articles raking over anything she heard about God. There was no such thing,… or person– God-forbid! (She cringed internally at her faux pau. But nothing happened).

She had to set new goals to keep busy. She wrote a textbook for elementary schools, and travelled to the States, hoping for fame..

There she went to another university and got degrees in arts, music, and philosophy. Education, journalism and even political science followed. She drove herself on, only stopping to write another textbook or history tome when she ran low on tuition fees and living expense money. She set higher goals and got doctorates. No matter how long or difficult the courses, as long as she did not have to think of relationships, or her lack of them.

A time came when there were no more courses that interested her. Realizing she had some responsibility to pass her knowledge on she decided to come teach in Canada. She chose high school, rather than a professorship, so she could feel superior to her students. They would not notice her short-comings, or so she thought.

Instead she ended up antagonizing the whole student body! Some called her the Fire-Spitting Dragon, and they had no respect for her at all.

Though Phyllis had written complicated theses to prove it was impossible for God to exist, her main argument was that in all her travels and studies she had never met anyone who was the kind of transformed person prescribed in the New Testament. Sometimes she wished she could just have a peek at such a perfect person; the next moment she beat herself up for allowing such a thought into her head.

When Phyllis heard about a student of hers, Darlene Barrett, a promiscuous sixteen year old who has dropped out of school to start a dress designing shop, she decided to get over there to tell this girl off. This very Friday. Not next week!

Yes, this fifty-ish woman, who looked like a model skeleton escaped from the labs, wearing a charcoal crepe dress ordered from an Eaton’s catalogue in the early 40s, with her greying red hair severely knotted into a neck bun, clicked and clattered in her high heeled black tie-up oxfords off on her crusade. She would teach that drop-out the value of an education!

Now, if your imagination is not up to featuring in your mind what a totally transformed Phyllis would be like, then you NEED to read Ruthe’s Secret Roses and find out how I pictured it.

Darlene had been kicked out of her mother’s apartment for becoming a Christian, and with Ruthe Veer’s help, had renovated a little green cottage into a dress-design shop under her new name, Darlin’ Bonne’s Shoppe. Phyllis found a totally transformed teen. Darlin’ looked 21 instead of 16 in her very tailored black velvet suit, and her shiny black hair done up in elegant fashion curls, shaped like a crown. Darlin’ was not giggling and winking at the boys in class now. She had good manners, and when her former teacher lit into her with a harsh lecture about dropping out of school, Darlin’ responded by slipping an arm around the older woman, drawing her to a fur covered vanity stool, and asking, “Would you like to hear how Jesus gave me a total makeover? A brand new person.”

Phyllis stared. “Imposs–!”

But Darlin’ Bonnie ignored her angry words and vibrations and pretended Phyllis really wanted to hear this. Which she did, gulping it down as if she’d been oxygen-deprived.

That very day Phyllis got a spiritual and a physical total body makeover and a brand new look. The gang at Darlin’ Bonne’s Shoppe spent all that evening giving her a new hairdo, a new face, and a new wardrobe. They all worked together in one room, and even worked through all her class subjects at school with Phyllis, and showed her new ways to teach.

I assure you - when she was back in school on Monday, her students did not recognize her. The only thing that convinced them was when she humbly told the story of her own royal treatment at Darlin’ Bonne’s - her total makeover. She was going to keep working at being this new woman until she fully measured up to the description in Matthew chapter 5.

Sure! You can ….
Read more about the book first here, if you like; Introduction Or, go directly to the Order page

Or, Read sample chapters of my first novel online, starting at the Index

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