The Stone of Blood (52 page)

The girl in the story never knew that I had such strong feelings for her, feelings of caring, warmth and love. All that she knew were the words contained in a secret love letter written by the hand of a young boy who had not the courage then to sign his name.

As the years passed I made a promise to myself that if I were ever to see her again, I would be man enough to make a fool of myself and let her know that I had been the stupid boy who had written her the letter. A letter that had taken me over a month and a half to write, just so that it would read as pretty as I thought her to be; words that were written as if by Romeo to Juliet.

On the day I saw her, my heart skipped a beat. And I told her hello. I told her that I was sorry; I had been such a shy, awkward, and stupid boy who could not openly show his feelings for her at the time, and sign his name at the bottom of the letter. I told her of how even now, I still held that same depth of feeling for her and that I still cared for her; and of how she would always be that beautiful girl who rode her horse through the grassy green fields of my memories.

That’s when she told me of her family, her husband and her son.

I find that life doesn’t always lead us down the paths that we’d like it to. But love is what it is. And while my heart may hurt, it does it good to see her happy, for if you truly love someone that’s how you want them to feel.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
—
Maya Angelou
, Professor of
English
Literature
Wake
Forest
University
,
Winston-Salem
,
NC
.

The words spoken by the Wizard to the Tin Man were wrong. A heart is judged by how much you love …not by how much you are loved by others.

‘Cricket’ found her happily ever after …after all. And ‘Toby’ …well that my friends may be found on the pages of a whole other story….” ~ Tony

References:

Pope Leo XII

Leo XII's domestic policy was one of extreme conservatism: "He was determined to change the condition of society, bringing it back to the utmost of his power to the old usages and ordinances, which he deemed to be admirable; and he pursued that object with never flagging zeal."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XII

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Trent

http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/western/bldef_leoxii.htm

St. Joseph’s Cathedral Church Bell

Around its surface, (Bell) and preceding the dates 'Lyons 1821' and the holy names 'Jesu-Maria' appears the sentence from Holy "Writ: ' Audite verhum domini omnes gentes, et annuntiate in insulis quae procul sunt.' The impression has been general, as well among the clergy as the deity, that this bell was a gift to Bishop Flaget from Louis Phillippe, Duke of Orleans, afterwards king of France, who desired thus to acknowledge his sense of obligation for courtesies extended to him by that prelate, when he was an exile in the Island of Cuba.

http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/illinois-catholic-historical-society/illinois-catholic-historical-review-1918---1929-volume-volume-viii-number-1-t-ill/page-22-illinois-catholic-historical-review-1918---1929-volume-volume-viii-number-1-t-ill.shtml

http://www.stjoechurch.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_St._Joseph_Proto-Cathedral

http://www.markobryan.com/12-14-05%20content/pages/Saint%20Joseph.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=Sw1MWF_IFwUC&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=floor+plan+of+St+Joseph+basilica+bardstown&source=bl&ots=aOguR_tumV&sig=oXhr0hOdg1zSpIRlYPCUYnALFWA&hl=en&ei=w1xeTomGFY6NsALemeQ5&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&sqi=2&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1280&bih=818&wrapid=tljp13148069291841322&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=St+Joseph+basilica+bardstown&fb=1&gl=us&hq=St+Joseph+basilica&hnear=0x88685224eb0a98fb:0xa147e5666a735f7a,Bardstown,+KY&cid=15116864682858830687&ei=SGJeTvGhDoWHsgKF74kX&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=photo-link&cd=1&resnum=4&sqi=2&ved=0CD4QnwIoADAD

http://www.historicmapworks.com/Buildings/index.php?state=KY&city=Bardstown&id=13894

http://www.jstor.org/pss/25012521

The Bard Family

The town of
Bardstown
was laid out by William Bard on lands of David Bard. It was named after the latter.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cbard/Bard_Gen_Page/Tonyiam.html

Witches

"The Untold Story of Mary Ayer Parker: Gossip and Confusion in 1692"

http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon-salem/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=salem/texts/bios.xml&style=salem/xsl/dynaxml.xsl&chunk.id=b42&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes

John Rowan

During an epidemic of cholera that spread through Bardstown in 1833, three of Rowan's children (William, Atkinson, and Mary Jane) died. The spouses of William and Mary Jane also died of cholera, as did Mary Jane's daughter, and Rowan's sister Elizabeth and her husband. Aid from Bishop Joseph Flaget and a group of nuns who traveled to Federal Hill during the epidemic probably spared the life of Rowan's orphaned granddaughter, Eliza Rowan Harney.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rowan_(Kentucky)

John Fitch

Fitch began (1785) work on the invention of the steam engine and steamboat and secured soon afterward the exclusive right to build and operate steamboats on the waters of
New Jersey
,
Pennsylvania
,
New York
,
Delaware
, and
Virginia
. A trial run of his first steamer (1786) was only a partial success. His next vessel, launched and operated on the
Delaware River
in 1787, was followed by two others. Although Fitch was not alone in developing the steam engine and steamboat, there is good evidence that he invented the first American steamboat. Nevertheless, he failed to receive either the opportunity to commercialize his invention or the recognition he justly deserved. Frustrated by endless disappointments, Fitch committed suicide in
Bardstown
,
Ky.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fitch_(inventor)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/31380953/Life-of-John-Fitch-The-Inventor-of-the-Steam-boat-by-Thompson-Westcott-1857

Read more:
http://www.answers.com/topic/john-fitch#ixzz1UNXjhHmP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fitch_(inventor)

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/v/a/i/Robert-S-Vail-iii/GENE1-0019.html

Battle
of
New Orleans

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/battleofneworleans.htm

Lystra

Lystra was a proposed town that was to be located near the Rolling Fork of the Salt River in what was then
Nelson
County
. It was planned about 1794 and lots where to be sold from an office in
London
(
England
), but the town wasn't built.

http://www.holylandphotos.org/browse.asp?s=1,3,8,21,57

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/asia_minor_p20.jpg

http://www.uky.edu/KentuckyAtlas/ky-lystra.html

http://www.bible-history.com/smiths/L/Lystra/

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lycaonia

Henry Schenck Tanner

(1786–1858), was an American cartographer, born in
New York
.

Part of Tanner's 1822 map of North America, depicting the
Pacific Northwest
. He produced A Geographical and Statistical Account of the Epidemic Cholera from its Commencement in
India
to its Entrance into the
United States
in 1832 in response to the worldwide cholera epidemic of 1817.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Schenck_Tanner

Raphael

Raphael was one of the great masters of the Renaissance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Cartoons