"A Bittersweet Reunion"

A Bittersweet Reunion Chapter 1

Night had fallen. The Ingalls and Garvey clans were gathered in front of the Ingalls' little log cabin, making merriment. There was a bit of a frost in the air. The sweet music of Charles' fiddle filled the night air and they all got up and began doing the jig - all except Mary.

She had been quiet and off to herself all evening.

The jig finally ended. Caroline, who had been inside tending the baby, came outside to talk to Alice. "So how do you like it here in Walnut Grove?" she asked.

Grace one of her dearest friends; she'd even named her youngest daughter after her.

"Well," Alice answered, "since the house is payed for, I expect this will be permanent."

Caroline looked down at the baby. She'd chosen the name Grace in part because of the blessing they all felt at her arrival, but also partly after her dear friend, Grace Edwards. She missed Grace so much, Now, she was glad for Alice's friendship. She'd always been taught to be courteous and not be nosy, but still had difficulty hiding her relief that the Garvey's was staying

"Ma," asked Mary, approaching Caroline from the shadows, "may I please be excused? I have a test tomorrow."

"Certainly, dear," Caroline answered, knowing full well that Mary did not have a test the next day. Obviously seeing John, Jr. again hadn't been easier for her, but something else seemed to be bothering her, too.

Mary went inside and tiptoed up the ladder, still feeling a bit resentful. She had considered asking Patrick (one of her many new suitors) to act as her escort that evening, but decided he was too nice a boy to use to get over her old beau.

But lately, she also just hadn't liked going outdoors after dusk. Everything seemed so dark. Outside the firelight, she could barely make out people's faces, or make her way around without stumbling. But she knew Pa couldn't afford new eye-glasses. And she certainly wouldn't have worn them on this type of occasion anyway

She peered briefly out the window at the merriment, then closed the curtain. She slipped into her nightgown, said her prayers, and nestled into sleep.

Excellent! In fact, when watching this episode, I was always chocked by the look Mary's eyes had while the congregation was singing "Yes; Jesus Loves me"...But I never realized this little detail could make a good storyline about Mary loosing her eyesight... That's simply great!

Congrats!

Vanesa.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Supposedly Mary had been slowly going blind for like 2-3 years (I think) as a result of scarlet fever. Even when she got her first pair of glasses, she was going blind then. They just didn't realize it at the time.

Or at least that's my understanding - unless someone has a different theory.

Yes! Of course they didn't , because Mary began with a slow loss of her sight, but her symptoms were exactly the same than the ones of any other child who suffers myophy.

Vanesa.

I'm no eye doctor, but I think people who go blind from scarlet fever lose sight pretty quickly after recovery and it doesn't start out as myopia, but peices of their vision start to go black (the nerves dying).

But since this is the fictional Mary, I imagine her vision was getting bad in season 4 but so slowly she didn't fully realize it till toward the end.

whitelighter wrote:

I'm no eye doctor, but I think people who go blind from scarlet fever lose sight pretty quickly after recovery and it doesn't start out as myopia, but peices of their vision start to go black (the nerves dying).

But since this is the fictional Mary, I imagine her vision was getting bad in season 4 but so slowly she didn't fully realize it till toward the end.

You are right, Whitelighter. People who has scarlet fever could loss their eyesight pretty quiclky after suffering the disease. I have great-aunt who had scarlet fever when a child of six and she cannot hear from one of her ears. It was quite fast for her...

Real Mary loss her sight right after a very high fever with a final strocke and things happened like you depicted them. The last thing she saw in this world were Grace blue eyes looking at her. She was 14. After it , she could only see light and shadows. Some lights could ever bother her.

The Mary f the show had had scarlet fever when three years old, so it's very unlikely she culd loss her sight directly from it...

Vanesa.

Really well-written story!

As Mary reached out and clasped Ms. Peele’s hand, it looked to her as though Ms. Peele stood in a beam of brilliant white light, while everything about her was dark.

Just her mind playing tricks on her, Mary thought. Ms. Peele had finally come around and was going to take the chance she’d been given to redeem herself, and the light was shining down on her now. It never occurred to Mary that everything in her peripheral vision really did look darker these days, and that it wasn’t an illusion. Now, while all about. the congregation sang “Jesus Loves Me,” Mary’s eyes looked unfocused; almost as though she were in a trance.

It was a gray gloomy day as she and Pa rode back to Walnut Grove. Because of this, Mary didn’t care much about the fact that things in the distance were hard to make out Still, she chided herself for not wearing her glasses these past couple weeks while on her teaching assigment. Of course, she’d worn them for grading papers, but that was late at night at the Fishers’ house. She really should’ve worn them during the day since that did involve some reading as well. Her eyes felt tired now. Or course, she’d been so preoccupied with this whole ordeal with Ms. Peele that if there had been any change in her lately, she hadn’t given it much thought.

When I've written fan fiction I always want to go into too much detail. So that makes my stories too long. I like how this was just a "clip" of a time in Mary's life that led to so much of what changed it. Good work! Oh, and Rob if she has Fife's approval then we've got a winner!