City Lights, City Love: A Modern Twist on Ruth and Boaz

Chapter One: When it rains...it pours

"Here we go again" Raina exclaimed, frustration lacing her voice as she stepped out of her apartment, casting a wary glance at the sky above. It had been raining all week and the bus had been off schedule due to construction arriving later than usual, which her boss would not be happy to hear.

He told her just yesterday that if she was late again, he'd have to write her up. He wouldn't have to do anything in her opinion, he was choosing to. He knew she was the hardest worker he had and needed the job the most. All the other waitresses at McNallys' were a mix of high schoolers and college kids, just looking for some extra money.

Raina on the other hand was relying on the money to pay for the tiny studio apartment that she shared with her mother-in-law, Nancy. She wondered how life could flip so quickly. A year ago, she had been living on a farm in South Bend, Indiana, married to her husband Kevin. Their house was on the same plot of land as her brother-in-law, Nick and his wife Terra.

They all got along well and tended to the land in harmony. While neither couple had kids, they knew that they wanted some in the future and just wanted to wait until God saw fit to bless them. But that day never came. Her father-in-law got pneumonia and never recovered. He passed and Nancy came to live with Raina and Kevin after selling her house. It was a bit difficult sharing space with another who was used to running the household.

However, Raina took it in stride and was the epitome of grace and humility. But it seemed that was just the beginning of their world starting to crumble. A month after his father's passing, Kevin's brother Nick was traveling to the city for supplies, when he was killed in a car accident. Kevin became responsible for 3 households within six weeks, not to mention grieving the loss of his brother and father.

Six months later Raina found Kevin dead on the floor of the barn. The autopsy revealed that he went into cardiac arrest due to his high stress levels. He was only 26 years old. Raina figured the stress of caring for the land and all of them is what caused it. She had noticed after his father and brother's passing that he began to work later and rise earlier, but she had no idea the immense pressure he was carrying. It was not something that he was willing to talk about and in hindsight, she wished she would have pushed for him to be more open.

After his death, Raina, Nancy and Terra tried their best to maintain the upkeep of the land, but it was just too much. Nancy had blown through her savings from the sale of the house to keep them above water. Even that was not enough since they didn't have the resources or connections to keep things going.

They agreed to sell the land and split the proceeds equally. Raina, not used to handling the financial responsibilities, felt in over her head. The land had been listed for months now and they hadn't received any offers. Nancy had urged the women to return home to their families, hoping they'd find a better life for themselves. Terra returned to Springfield, IN and started working for her parents. She reached out every now and then, but as time went on, it seemed to less frequent. Raina didn't blame her. Nancy had become so bitter with life, that she was not the easiest person to be around or talk to.

She had urged Raina to return to her parents' home as well, but she refused. She could not leave Nancy to fend for herself. Her mother-in-law was getting older and her health had begun to decline. Plus, Raina considered Nancy and their household more familiar than the home she was raised in. Living there for the past 3 years had given her a different perspective on what family meant. It wasn't just about the people that had the same blood running through their veins. Instead she learned that family showed up for you. Love was a verb and while words could be nice, action really proved how people felt about you.

Raina loved her family but could not recall a time where that definition held true for them. They thought she was dumb when she told them she was getting married at the age of 20. Something they didn't bother to hide from her. But she also thought they were partly relieved to no longer be responsible for her. As much as it hurt her pride, she did give them a call to see if they'd be willing to help her and Nancy out. She didn't ask for a handout, but just a small loan until the land was sold. Her father had ridiculed her deceased husband and his entire family for not having plans in place. He told her she'd have to fend for herself.

Due to pressure from her mother, he did extend a half-hearted offer for her to return to their family estate, but would not consider the loan. Raina could not take that offer, knowing that she'd be taken care of, while Nancy would be left to figure things out alone. She decided not to even tell Nancy what her parents had said. Rather just informing her that they were unable to help them out at the time.

When they were cleaning and going through the men's' things to see what could be sold, Nancy found letters from a Mr. Nealson to Kevin. The correspondence detailed that Mr. Nealson knew their family's situation. They estimated that Kevin must have started writing to him when he heard of his father's passing. It appeared that the farm had started to take a downturn way before their tragic deaths. Financially they had been in bad shape for awhile. Kevin had written to a cousin, they surmised on his father's side of the family, essentially asking for a loan. The cousin agreed to give money to him to take care of the expenses in exchange for a small stake of the land. The offer seemed more than generous to Raina.

It appeared that since the cousin wrote a few letters after Kevin's death that received no response, there were no more letters since. Initially Raina thought finding a Mr. B Nealson from Chicago would be a fairly simple task, but her searches were to no avail. There were hundreds of thousands with the same last name living there. The return address was a PO Box that she had been sending letters to every week that all went unanswered. She wondered even how Kevin got the cousin's information.

Maybe he changed his mind and was no longer in a place to help. But she thought he would at least write her back and let her know that. But they didn't find the letters until six months after Kevin died and a lot could change in that time frame. They weren't yielding crops and could no longer afford to pay the ranch hands and had to let the few workers they had go. Thankfully, they all found work at neighboring farms.

She knew they would be close to losing their land if she could not keep up with the taxes and that is how she ended up applying and getting a waitressing job at McNallys. It took about 2 hours by train to get to her job from the farm house. As grueling as it was, Raina did it everyday with little complaint. The money paid their bills and allowed her to keep things afloat. Plus it was hard to find work in her small town since it was mostly farmland. Finally, after working for a couple months plus the money Nancy made by selling the items she knit, they moved to a tiny apartment in Chicago. It was with the hopes of finding the cousin that Nancy agreed to give it a shot. Initially, she urged Raina to leave her at the farm house, but Raina would not take no for an answer. They had begun to receive foreclosure notices which caused Nancy to become increasingly bitter.

Raina knew that Nancy would only get worse if left to her own devices, so they moved to Chicago. A coworker agreed to rent out the room above her garage that was converted into a small apartment and that is where they had been living for the past few months. While it was cramped, Raina chose to have gratitude that her commute was only 30 minutes now and for everyday that God allowed them to wake up. She continued praying that God would restore the joy that they once had. She hoped with all her heart that they would get an offer on the land or that she'd at least get a better position so that she could move her and Nancy to some nice place. In the mean time, she paid small payments on the farmhouse and hoped that would be enough to get them by.

She thought back to last week when she splurged and got Nancy a birthday cake, thinking it would lift their spirits. However, Nancy just said it was a waste of money that could have gone to something important. Raina knew grief affected people in different ways and that her loss didn't compare to losing a husband and both your children. But it was really hard watching Nancy become a shell of a person. If Raina seemed too upbeat, Nancy was quick to kill her joy, asking her what she could possibly be happy about. While things looked awful from the outside and if she was honest, the inside too, she kept faith that things would turn around for them.