"Love in the Great Pine Woods" by Gratiana Lovelace (2015-2016) (Completed)

Ch. 46 (PG-13): Growing Pains

"Love in the Great Pine Woods", Ch. 46 (PG-13): Growing Pains, July 30, 2016 by Gratiana Lovelace  (Post #945)

(An original story copyrighted by Gratiana Lovelace; all rights reserved) [(1) story cover, left]

[From time to time, I will illustrate my story characters with: Richard Armitage as Sam Wakeforest, Marcia Gay Harden as Sam's older sister Tessa Wakeforest Shoop Delaney, and Emily Deschanel as Tessa's sister-in-law Olivia Delaney Wakeforest, Viola Davis as Pauletta Perkins, Cicely Tyson as Nellie Newton, Anna Sophia Robb as Alice Trent, Kevin Spacey as Roger Delaney, Sam Heughan as Todd Wakeforest, Idris Elba as Dominic Perkins, the late Polly Holliday as the Waitress Madge, Donald Sutherland as Aldus Warren, Teri Polo as Lillian Warren, Ewan McGregor as David Warren, Noah Lomax as the 5 yrs old Daniel Wakeforest, Soleil Moon Frye as the 5 yrs old Ellie Wakeforest, and others as noted.]

Author's Content Note: "Love in the Great Pine Woods" is a mature love story with dramatic themes of love and relationships. It will mostly be at the PG and PG-13 movie levels. Specific chapters or passages may have a further rating of: L for language, D for dramatic emotions, and S for sensual themes. And I will rate the chapters accordingly. If you are unable or unwilling to attend a movie with the ratings that I provide for a chapter, then please do not read that chapter. This is my disclaimer. And as is my habit, I will summarize the previous chapter's events at the beginning of the next chapter.

Author's Recap from the Previous Chapter: With Olivia Wakeforest going into labor early and delivering her and Sam's twins—Eleanor Marie Wakeforest and Daniel Delaney Wakeforest—at their Hidden Lake cottage, with baby shower guests gifts of blankets and such coming in very handy. Their lives as parents had just begun.

"Love in the Great Pine Woods", Ch. 46: Growing Pains

Five years later in 1961, much has happened in the Wakeforest families. The now fifty year old Sam Wakeforest's and the forty year old Olivia Wakeforest's young children are playing in the backyard of their Wakeforest Family home just outside of the Town of Wakeforest on a Saturday in October. It is the Autumn season with the leaves reflecting a profusion of color, turning from green to orange and red [(2) right] , but it has not become too chilly.

Yet, the ever diligent Olivia insisted that her children put on their sweaters just in case. Most deadly childhood diseases have been tamed by 1961—when children have access to decent medical care like the Wakeforest children do--but a parent can never be too careful in Olivia's opinion, in Sam's opinion, too. Widespread vaccinations/immunications will not be available to all children until the 1962 Vaccination Assistance Act [(3)].

The older Wakeforest children's mother Olivia stands watchfully at the kitchen bay window inside their home, cradling their one year old daughter Suzie who has the sniffles. So her Mommy won't allow Suzie to go outside to play with her brothers and sister today. Though at Suzie's age, play mostly consists of her raising her arms up and down and making indeterminant noises—or crawling faster than a jack rabbit. Olivia vividly remembers taking her eyes off of Suzie for but a moment last month, and Suzie followed their spaniel doggie Bart out through the doggie door—with Olivia catching Suzie by the heels and pulling her back inside the house. Crisis averted.

So the calm and confident Olivia is mindful of their children needing supervision—especially their children, who seem to have scraped knees and fits of temper almost every day as they grow older. The children are simply testing their limits—and the limits of their parents' patience. But as Olivia always tells her beloved husband Sam, the children are just experiencing growing pains.