Her Name Was Nell

Marlee had been listening to Grandma Lu tell her Grandma B about the newspaper clipping of her little kids that was in her big photo book. "Grandma Lu, what's a newspaper clipping? How come you saved it? You don't have any little kids. You are too old to have kids."

Oh, Grandma Lu laughed. "You know what? You are absolutely right! I am too old to have little kids, but I used to have some. I had three little kids. Now they are all grown up. To answer your question a newspaper clipping is when people cut something out of the newspaper that they want to save to look at sometimes or to show to other people." Marlee said, "My papa reads the newspaper."
"Newspapers are a very important part of our nation's history." Marlee said, "What's history?" Grandma Lu said, "Why don't we go over to the table and have a snack. I'll tell you a little bit about the history or the past of the old west and how newspapers helped to settle it. I think you might like a story about that. There are so many stories about how the west was settled I'll have to think of a special one that you might like."

A few children and some grown ups had come back to Marleewood. Some were wearing masks some were not. Marlee was wearing a mask, but Whitlee Jo was not a fan of wearing one yet. The people that had come in quietly sat down at some empty tables and listened to Grandma Lu tell the first story she had told in a long time.

People that know her really well know that when Grandma Lu kind of tilts her head to one side and clears her throat she is about to tell a story that she really enjoys. She started this story by saying, "I like nothing better than a beautiful wedding!"
Everyone chuckled and thought, "This has nothing to do with newspapers."

Then the room got quiet when they heard Grandma Lu say, "Once a long long time ago there was a young woman whose name was Nell. She was so very poor. She had no money to pay her rent or to buy food for much longer than a week. Even then she would have to be so very careful not to waste a crumb. She was so cold and lonely. She had only a little coal to put in her little stove in her tiny apartment. It put out so little heat that the water in her water basin had a thin layer of ice on the top.
 She was a very skilled seamstress. She had managed to take in sewing for the rich ladies in her town, but the money was not enough to live on because it seemed that more and more young ladies had found themselves in her shoes. They too were doing laundry, cleaning and sewing for the wealthy folks which meant that she was getting fewer and fewer orders.
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Marlee had played hard that morning and she was getting so very tired as she listened to Grandma Lu's story. She soon was fast asleep.