The Awesome Women of Bloomsburg, part 2

Meet Doris Kile

We are surrounded by farm land here. There's a dairy farm down the road from us which I will write about at a later time. There is, however, a family named Kile who own some acres nearby. They display a sign in front of their house that tells what they have for sale. They sell produce and eggs and rabbits; rabbits to eat, not to have as pets. In Doris Kile's world there is no time for pets. All her animals have to earn their keep.

Once, we were driving down the road and we passed Doris' produce stand. Her sign said "Eggs, Rabbits, Beets." Peter said, "Yummy. Sounds good to me." By the way, I have tried to eat rabbit but, like a lot of people, I can't stomach the idea. Yes, I know I eat chicken and beef and fish but there's something about eating rabbit meat that I can't tolerate.

As the pattern unfolded as usual, Peter made friends with Doris Kile quickly. He stopped to buy eggs from her, sampled her produce, and allowed time for a chat. When Peter told me about Doris' vital qualities I wanted to meet her, so I forced myself to overcome my shyness, go over there myself, buy something, and introduce myself. The little effort it took to do this was indubitally worthwhile.

The first thing you notice about Doris is her eyes. They are a clear, innocent, almost translucent blue. When you look into Doris' eyes you know that she could never tell a lie, unless it was necessary to protect her family in some way. The next thing you notice about Doris is her hands. Having worked with earth all her life, a certain amount of it became ingrained in her skin. These hands, like her eyes, are innocent too.

Doris is a committed Christian, and she lives her faith while never talking about it. She goes to church on Sundays and makes a nice Sunday dinner for her family. She read my novel Buying A Year and I was nervous because I am Jewish along with the main character of the novel; I thought that somehow our religious differences would strain our growing friendship. But nothing happened; I could tell that she really enjoyed reading my book. Respect has grown between us.

When we go away overnight, Doris and her husband Alan come over and care for our pets. Our dog loves them; I've heard that when they come to feed Homer and the cats Homer's tail wags so hard that it goes around in a circle. A sign of respect and love from the animal world.

There is so much I could say about Doris but I'll end with this story. My son travels all over the world to volunteer when there's a disaster. He's traveled to the worst hell-holes on this earth to try and save people. He spent a considerable time in Haiti; four days after he came home from there, Japan had its earthquake and he made the decision to go to Japan for a week. For the first time since Michael began his work, I was devastated; up until then I could be strong for my son. However, I just couldn't believe that Michael was going to this place of horrors right after coming home from another hell-hole. Early in the morning, the day after I learned this, I had to go to Doris' and buy eggs. I pulled off to the side of the road and Doris came up to greet me, as usual. All it took was one look into Doris' innocent clear blue eyes and I burst into tears.

"Michael's going to Japan," I sobbed. "There's the earthquake and radioactive stuff laying all over the place."

Doris didn't say anything. She knows all about Michael and what his life has been. But the next morning, very early, we heard a car drive up to the house. It was Doris, with a freshly baked pan of cinnamon rolls.