The Girl in the Red Rubber Boots

Category: Stories

  • Matt and Phoebe’s Wedding, Part 2: The Drive-In Ceremony

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    (For Part 1: Preparation, click here) The day of the wedding dawned, not bright and clear, but not stormy and rainy either. A sort-of in-between, with gray, shifting clouds, and patches of sun. The wedding was scheduled for 11:00 am, but Amy, Jenny and I arrived at 9:30 for family pictures. Matt and Phoebe had…

  • Matt and Phoebe’s Wedding, Part 1: Preparation

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    by

    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    If you know anything about my family, you’ll know how long we’ve waited for this. There are six of us siblings, ranging in age from 21-34, and last Sunday was the first-ever wedding in our family. We used to muse about which of us siblings would manage to get married first, and we all had…

  • The Man Behind the Desktop

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    Emily Sara Smucker
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    If you take your laptop into a coffee shop to get some work done, you’ll quickly notice that you’re not the only one. Lots of people do this: telecommuters, freelance writers, wannabe novelists, students…it’s not strange. What is strange is this: Yes indeed, in this blurry photo you can behold what I beheld in my favorite…

  • Blogmas 2019 Day 7: Childhood Christmas Memories

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    Emily Sara Smucker
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    Today I’m googling “Blogmas post ideas,” because I spent all my blogging energy editing a video for tomorrow’s post. Hmm…”Childhood Christmas memories” looks like a semi-promising idea. Let me recall a few Childhood Christmas memories. Memory 1: The China Tea Set When I was a kid I absolutely adored the book A Bargain for Francis.…

  • The Engagement

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    Emily Sara Smucker
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    My brother Matt and his girlfriend Phoebe are both originally from Oregon, though they currently both live in Washington DC. But Phoebe’s grandpa was turning 100, and Matt needed a vacation, so they both came to Oregon for a week and a half. Hmmm. “Have you bought a ring yet?” I asked Matt. He winked…

  • The End of the Road

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    Emily Sara Smucker
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    There were eight of us: Four siblings, two spouses, and me, the lone granddaughter. All gathered at the bedside of Amos Yoder, a 102-year-old man who was bedridden following a stroke. We thought he was dying, and then he started to improve. We thought we should put him in a nursing home, and then he…

  • There’s No Map for This Journey

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    Emily Sara Smucker
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    You know that week between Christmas and New Years, when everyone is off work but all the Christmas parties are over, and you just kind-of sit around and feel disoriented and pig out on leftovers and forget what day of the week it is? That’s what this week in Minnesota has been like. Well, not…

  • Oh, Grandpa!

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    Emily Sara Smucker
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    Mom and I got to Minnesota on Sunday evening. We were picked up by my Uncle Rod and Aunt Rebecca, and taken to my Uncle Marcus and Aunt Anna’s house. Marcus is Mom’s brother, and Grandpa lives in his basement. Rebecca, Mom’s sister who lives in Chicago, is the next-closest, location wise, so she and…

  • An Unfortunate Incident Involving a Truck

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    I have a fear of driving. As fears go, I feel like it’s a logical one. Many people die or are seriously injured in car crashes. Nevertheless, though it may be a logical fear, it’s not really a practical one. This summer I’m driving combine for my dad’s cousin Darrell, on the original family farm…

  • Miracle in a Theater

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    Emily Sara Smucker
    in

    Sometimes I just want a sign that God has not forgotten me. This is the story of how I received one such sign. In downtown Lancaster there is this beautiful historic theater called the Fulton Opera House. When I realized that they were putting on a production of the musical Once, my heart began to ache.…