Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Jacqueline Bethune

September 30, 2007

I am happy to introduce another new writer for Storytime Tapestry.  Jacqueline Bethune becomes writer #435 and I am sure you will love her story as much as I do.  Please email her and welcome her to our family.

Ruth Ellen Koso- My inspiration

Jacqueline Bethune  

            When I was thirteen I met a older woman.  Her name was Ruth Ellen Koso.  As a kid my parents were not religious and they did not make us go to church or even take us to church.  Ruth Ellen was my inspiration because she was the first true Christian I had met.  She was a Lutheran and she treated me even as a young teenager with a lot of respect. 

            She started out by just being my friend and talking to me when I needed someone to talk to.  After a while I started helping her clean her house since she could not get up on the counters to oil the cupboards or get the grease off of the upper walls and cupboards.  I enjoyed helping her and she enjoyed having me around.

 After a while we began having lessons.  She taught me to crochet and embroider as well as cross stitch.  She had some trouble teaching me to crochet since I am left handed.  She taught me to crochet as a right handed person so that I could use any pattern I wanted to use.  She had a lot of patience to do this since I can be very stubborn.  She also had me start to help out with the Vacation Bible School at her Lutheran church.  She introduced me to God’s Word and His love.  She did this by just being around and being available to me when I needed her. 

We stayed in close contact even after I left home and went to college.  When I came back on the weekends I would go visit her and let her know how things were going.  She also showed me how a relationship was supposed to be carried out.  She had been married for 33 years when I got married.  She came to my wedding shower as the one who had the most wisdom from the longest marriage. 

She always told me that I would work with people even though I told her that I could not handle working with people.  I have since started working in a group home for troubled boys and am working on my Masters degree in marriage and family therapy.  I have continued to crochet and cross stitch as she taught me to do.  Crocheting has become one of the things that I do to relax.

She taught me to have respect for myself and others.  She helped me develop the self-esteem that I had thought was lost after some things that happened in my life.  She supported me in all of my decisions even when she knew they were wrong for me.

When she died of a heart attack in 1996, I was devastated since I could not get off of work to go to the funeral.  I still keep in touch with her husband though so that he knows how she really did touch me and help me grow as a person.

 Jacqueline Bethune

jacqueline7_2001@yahoo.com