Dear Friends,
Welcome back to My First Stories! I hope you enjoyed The Flock. I will be posting it as a complete entry as soon as my editing procedure is complete. One of you suggested that I write a sequel to it and I think that is a great idea! We will be revisiting The Flock in the future.
When I started the My First Stories Blog site, it was to provide you, Dear Friends, with a variety of “feel good” stories. Every year I write a Christmas story. This next story, Candlelight, is a modernized version of the very first Christmas story I wrote in 1978. The story was first introduced at a Christmas Concert at the elementary school where I was teaching as a Building Assistant (yes, schools were allowed to have Christmas concerts back then). As a Building Assistant, I was not assigned to teach in a classroom but to help all teachers of all grade levels with all of their children, so I had an entire building of students. When the holiday season approached, there was not any way financially to provide small gifts for an entire school, especially one short month after I was married. As a result, I wrote Candlelight and requested to read it at the Christmas Concert. I was granted permission and, from a rocking chair set on a stage, I read them Candlelight.
One of the comments, I received from you concerning my use of the serial format, posting by chapters, was you had a trouble keeping track of the characters. Therefore, here are the main characters and a map of the town, Candlelight. I wanted to give you fair warning, Dear Friends, I may introduce other characters throughout the story but the ones listed are the main characters of the story.
Main Characters
Michael (Mike) Kerls, Jr. – Owner/Manager of Kerls’ Gas Station and Mini Mart
Samantha Kerls – Mike’s Mother
Louise (Lou) Barber – Manages Barber’s Bakery
Paul Brown – Pastor at Candlelight Methodist Church
James Dooley – Priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Richard Dell – Owner of Dell’s Chicken and Vegetable Farm
Anna Dell – Richard’s Daughter
Martha Moon – Administrator of Mary’s Memory Care Retirement Center
Kristy – The Newcomer
My First Stories 