Ale for the Soul

**Found this story I penned for a writing contest and wanted to share.** One beautiful sunny afternoon as the kids entertain themselves with TV and toys, I continue to go about my daily chores of house cleaning while baby-sitting four precious grandchildren.   Stealing away for a few moments of rest, I quickly and quietly repaired to the living room in order to lay down on the sofa.   Ahh…rest and ease!   I wonder how quickly this will end as the children discover Grandma is not to be heard in the kitchen.   Immediately my eyes close and I drift off to Never Never Land.   Not realizing how long I had been asleep my eyes opened to find Hollie holding her arm tight to herself with a twisted look of extreme horror and discomfort on her face.   The transference of horror took upon my face as I discovered her arm seared by a nasty burn, and the hand missing from atop her wrist.   In my hysteria I desperately tried to find what she had done to cause such horrible dismemberment.   Frantic!  

**Found this story I penned for a writing contest and wanted to share.** The time was the 1940s in America.  War!  Gradually the grip of the Great Depression loosened as the nightmare that held this country in such terror and horror diminished into a fleeting nightmare as the economy began to hit on all four cylinders.  The New Deal!  The American Dream a reality once more!  As a young couple in love, the thought of hope and a future life together seemed easily within reach.  Closing on our new home in Austin gave us the confidence and security in the fact that very dream can be had upon the strength of a good work ethic.  For isn’t this what America was built on?  Wasn’t it by our resolve and determination, the sweat of our brow, so we were told and had lived out for us that gave the sense that the world could be ours if we simply went after it?  For this is what made us the Greatest Generation.  Soon the reminder came that dreams come at a price as financial, as well as other, strugg