Please scroll to the bottom of this page to read The Woodcarver Story by Eve.
“A rainbow in my head”
- Part 1 — A mother’s journal
- Part 2 — A walk through the valley of the shadow of death
- Part 3 — A new normal
Part 1 — A mother’s journal
18 1/2″ 6#
November 21, 1983
Dear Little Eve,
Yesterday was your birth! You arrived on Earth at 11:30 p.m., 18 and one half inches; and weighing 6 pounds; 11 ounces. Oh darling, it was certainly a battle. I wanted you to arrive and so I just tried and pushed for over 4 hours even though I wasn’t supposed to push so hard. But darling, you came when you were ready, and oh my what, a surprise! Daddy and I kind of thought you were going to be a boy. But instead you are a lovely, petite, little girl with dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. In fact, when you came out of me a nurse said “oh look, a little Laplander.”
Yes, I love you. I love your soft skin, your tiny fingers and your long toes. You’re just absolutely wonderful and Healthy! Your sisters held you and met you tonight. Daddy seems a little bit afraid of hurting you, but I can see that he loves you and we are all so grateful God sent you to us. I’m looking forward to many happy years ahead, darling.
Love, Mama
Part 2 — A walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Chapter 1 — I Do Not Like That
April 14, 1989“ ‘That Sam I am. That Sam I am. I do not like that Sam I am.’
“ ‘Do you like green eggs and ham?’
“ ‘I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam I am,’ ”
“Um, Mrs. Newman, do you want to talk about it?” the hospital social worker asked?
“No, I want to read with my daughter. I do not want to talk to you. We want to read don’t we Eve? Now if you’ll just leave us alone -”
“Um, I have some paper work,” the social worker replied. “Do you mind if I just sit here and work on it?”
“Suit your self. Now where were we Eve?”
“He doesn’t want to eat them in a boat, but let’s read a different story now,” Eve said. She was bored sitting in the hard, orange chairs outside of the emergency room at Children’s Hospital. Her little body squirmed and she did not like the stupid dress they made her wear. It was ugly and cold. There was not enough material to go all the way around it. There were thick, white strings in back ….. After an eternity, Debby thanked the doctor for the information and turned to Eve. “Ok Eve, let’s see if they have any good books or magazines here.”
….. By the time they got home the next morning, word about little Eve Newman had spread throughout the apartment community. When Eve went out into the courtyard to play, all of the children came running over to her, but none mentioned the upcoming brain surgery to remove her tumor.
Eve told the children that she needed to collect rocks. The adults were fascinated to see Eve carefully select different sizes, shapes and colors from the rock-filled, sand buckets that the other kids brought to her. Over the next four days, she made piles and piles of rocks on their patio.
Part 3 — A new normal
Chapter 16 Rain Drops on Roses
October 2004“Oh my gosh. Evita you will never believe this,” Debby said, using her daughter’s artist name.
“What?”
Debby looked down at her daughter with pride pouring from her heart.
“That was someone from ‘Make a Wish’ on the telephone. Do you remember last summer when all of the kids who have gotten wishes were asked to send in drawings and paintings? You sent in a copy of Maria’s favorite things from the Sound of Music. There were raindrops on roses…”
“And whiskers on kittens tickling Maria’s face,” Eve giggled.
“Eve, ‘Make a Wish’ wants to use YOUR painting for their holiday thank you card to donors.”
“Mom, I can’t believe it!”
“Oh yes you can – it’s the truth. You are an artist, a true artist. Do they get to use your painting?”
“I’m honored,” was Eve’s sweet reply. “I must W.R.I.T.E write to the cousins.”
Dear Mary and Dan and Holly and Katie,
I have been wondering about what all of you have been up to lately? I wanted to let you know that one of the paintings I entered in a contest, the one of Maria’s favorite things, that includes Katie and Holly and Melissa with blue satin sashes , the one that is hanging in your kitchen right now is going to be on a Christmas card!!!
I also want you to know that I’m missing you a lot so it would be nice if I could get a few letters from you once in a wile.
I want you to know that I’m sending some of my angels who want to become your own angels to watch over all of you for the rest of your life. I want you to know that all of the angels that I am giving to you promise you that they will watch over you no matter WHAT happens in your life. I also thought that I should include that I hope that you are happy to have some of my angels watching over you.
I would like to know what is your favorite thing to draw and what is your favorite thing that you like to –
Eve did not finish her letter to the cousins. Something clicked in her brain. It reminded her that her oldest sister was sick. So Eve grabbed one of her watercolor cards, the one filled with flying angels. After pausing to gaze at each angel, she opened the card and soulfully wrote her thoughts for Amanda.
Dear Amanda,
I am sending 20 of my angels as a present to you because I want you to get all better as soon as possible. I also want to let you know that one of the angels has made so many promises I wouldn’t know where to begin with all of the promises but the number one promise that she made was that she will be watching over you well you are getting better. This angel is so pretty I could only think of YOU who will love this angel so much you will be thank full that I gave her to you.
I wanted to let you know that you have been in a lot of my prayers all because I want you to get to be all better because your one very important person to me.
Love, Eve
PS Tell Peter that I want to let Peter know that I feel sorry for him because he had a hard week in the labratory. I will be keeping you both in all of my prayers. I also want to let Peter know that I’m sending 100 of my good luck angels his way.
She was always sending her angels to other people, but the angels could not help Eve with her secret problem. Eve got up from her chair and locked her bedroom door. She pulled a candy bar from her pocket. She opened it, quietly ripping the wrapping with her teeth. Then she scarfed it down and hid the wrapper in one of her yellow, craft drawers… (to purchase the entire story, contact debbyandeve@gmail.com)
The Woodcarver Story by Eve
Snowmen in the Woodcarver’s Front Yard
In a town there was an elderly man whose name was Jonathan. He was said to be one of the greatest artists, who could carve a lot of different things such as a full manger scene using hickory, chestnut and red oak. As it happened the one morning well he was eating a bowl of hot oatmeal and drinking a cup of hot tea he heard someone knocking at his front door so he took a drink of tea to swallow his bite of oatmeal and went to answer the door.
There stood lady who had four children whom she adopted from a orphanage, so he said what brings you here? He let them into his house and he let her sit on the rocking chair which was near the fire place and she said my name is Miss Bell and I have just moved into town however when I was unpacking all of my most highly precious beloved fragile things I couldn’t seem to find my manger set. I was hoping by some miracle that I would be able to find one so I heard from a lot of other people in this town about the wonderful job that you do as a wood carver, so I asked one of the families in town to show me the way to get to your house.
They said that your house was a big red brick house and it would be on the left side of the road with the smoke coming up and out of the chimney. Miss Bell went with a crowd of people to his house. The woodcarver already had all of his Christmas decorations set up on his house and both front and back yards were so beautiful and so well lit up that you could see the walkway going up to his house. There were various kinds of wood carvings such as a crech which had a baby Jesus and Mother Mary and Joseph and wisemen and angels and a lot of animals.
He was making his homemade chocolate cocoa, but he was running out of fire wood, so he was jest about to leave the comforts of his home when a large group of people came. They were pulling a lot of firewood over to his house he was so surprised to see everyone helping him out without a moment to waste he brought out a lot of heaping mugs full of his homemade chocolate which he had a secret recipe for when they were all done bring him so much good dry fire wood he gave everyone a cup of his secret recipe, which he told everyone now take a pad of my papers of main you may write down my homemade hot chocolate which everyone drain it all up but they swallowed it down to the very last good drop and they wrote down the recipe so they could make it all throughout that bitter cold winter.
A rainbow in my head 