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A Garage Sale Tale

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Many of you know that my husband, Ken, and I have a date every Thursday morning to scout out our city’s many garage sales. Our dates started shortly after we moved to Wichita, as an exploration of Wichita’s many unique coffee shops. But one week we spotted a garage sale sign on our way home from a coffee shop. And well…the rest is history.

I started sharing some of our garage sale purchases with my readers on Facebook in 2014. Those posts have turned into a weekly feature on my Facebook page, and I hear about it if I forget to post on Thursdays!

In July of 2014, I shared about finding a very old Bible for $1 at a garage sale. We had eaten breakfast at a favorite restaurant called The Good Egg that morning, so we think the garage sale was probably on the east side of Wichita. But we don’t remember for sure.

The little Bible had an address and a name handwritten inside, Freda Hurd, and I sometimes wondered about the owner and how the Bible had gotten from Independence, Kansas to Wichita. I tucked it onto a shelf with some other old books and enjoyed seeing it there by my desk for several years.

Fast forward to February of 2017. I was doing some rearranging in my office (which happens often, as anyone who knows me is well aware!) when I came across the little Bible again. This time I leafed through the pages and discovered a perfectly preserved four-leaf clover between the pages of the Book of Daniel. I smiled and tucked the Bible away again.

Fast forward once more to October of 2018. Ken and I were on a mission to downsize our belongings a bit and I was sorting through books, making piles to give our daughters. Neither of them were interested in the Bible, but when I thought about sending it off to Goodwill, it just didn’t seem right. Surely there was someone out there, some relative of Freda’s who would be happy to have the Bible. Who might not even have known it existed.

I searched her name on google and her obituary appeared. Among her survivors was a son who lived in the Wichita area. I found a man by that name on Facebook and sent a private message. I put the little Bible back on the shelf and forgot all about my message.

Until a week ago Sunday. I logged into Facebook and a message from the man, Ron Weddle, popped up in my inbox. “Freda Hurd…was my mother.” A few emails later and Ken and I had a lunch invitation from Ron and his wife, Marcia.

We met them last Thursday—appropriately, our garage sale day—at Carlos O’Kelly’s, a restaurant that turns out to be a favorite of both couples. We had a lovely visit and learned that Freda had passed away almost ten years ago at the age of 91. Her obituary tells that “after moving to Wichita she became one of the first women hired by Cessna Aircraft Company where she met her future husband Virgil G. “Doc” Weddle. Freda and Virgil were married December 20, 1941. Freda was a devoted wife, mother and grandmother. Next to her family, working in her flower garden was her passion. She took flying lessons so she could enjoy flying with Doc.”

It remains a mystery how the little Bible made its way to the other side of town. But what a joy it was to return the Bible to Freda’s son. And to make some new friends in the process.

I don’t write historical novels, but I think maybe there’s a story in there somewhere, don’t you? Have you ever lost something meaningful to you and had it returned by a stranger?

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Deborah Raney

DEBORAH RANEY's first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title and launched Deb’s writing career. Forty books later, she's still creating stories that touch hearts and lives. Her novels have won RWA's RITA Award, the ACFW Carol Award, the National Readers Choice Award, and the HOLT Medallion. She is also a three-time Christy Award finalist. Deb is on faculty for several national writers’ conferences and served on the executive board of the 2,500-member American Christian Fiction Writers organization for 18 years before retiring in 2022. She is a recent transplant to Missouri, having moved with her husband, Ken Raney, from their native Kansas to be closer to kids and grandkids. They love road trips, e-biking, Friday garage sale dates, and breakfast on the screened porch overlooking their wooded backyard.
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Comments

  1. That’s a wonderful story and yes, I agree, there is a much bigger story to tell by filling in the blanks.
    When we remodeled our kitchen three years ago an old cancelled check from 1923 was found in a wall. We knew our house had been moved about 20 miles from the country long before we bought it. Because of the name on the check we tracked down a relative here and from there someone else was able to tell us exactly where our home of 41 years originally was built. I’ve written many stories in my head about that check, starting with why it was written for $20.00 cash? That was a lot of money.
    We didn’t give the check to the relatives but I laminated it along with a blank one of our’s. I wrote a brief history of the house and our family on the back and they are both back in a wall.
    Treasures. I look forward to the treasures stored up in Heaven!

  3. Love this, Deb! God loves restoring lost things, doesn’t he? And I’m so grateful he does. I believe that same desire is buried deep within each of us too (for sure, the need is!). I’m so glad you tugged on that thread and pursued returning this Bible to its rightful “home.” Great pic!

  5. I commend you for making the effort to find a relative of Freda Hurd and for returning the Bible. What a special keepsake for Freda’s son. My husband has the Bible that had belonged to his sister while she was living, and he treasures it. This experience may just launch you into another story.

  6. What a beautiful story! Definitely a God thing that that Bible ended up in your hands, for sure. When it comes to historical fiction, I love reading it but have only written one lonely historical short story I don’t even know what to do with. Stories like this definitely tempt me to do more, though. 🙂

  8. This family is truly blessed you took the time to find them and share this Bible. It is always a pleasure to see what you and Ken find when you go “exploring” on Thursday. Yes, we do miss when you do not go. Always enjoy your books. God bless you on your journey and continued success with your writing.

  9. I’ve often wished I could find an ancestor’s Bible, complete with family dates. None have ever shown up though.

  11. This story is so sweet. Our Lord often sends promptings at the right time for us to act. How wonderful that you did act at a time when you could return that beloved Bible to her son.

    • The older I get, the more I try to pay attention to those promptings. I don’t always understand why they came, but I’ve never regretted following God’s leading.

  12. Hi Deb, Great story! God obviously led you to find Freda’s son. Aren’t you glad you followed His leading? I can see this as a great split-time book! I love the fact that she took flying lessons, and this was right before WWII, so there’s some intrigue there. Did her husband go to war? If so, what did she do while he was gone? It sounds to me like she didn’t let any gender barriers stop her. Ooh, I love historical fiction (and write it), but you could work it into a contemporary story. Go for it!

    • That’s the ONLY way I’d get it into a story. But already, some ideas are percolating about how it could become part of a contemporary story I’m writing. I love stuff like this! 🙂

  16. I LOVE this story! I am so glad that Freda’s son got her BIBLE, and you learned interesting history about Freda…maybe she could be a character in one of your books! 🙂

  18. We were staying at a bed and breakfast a few hours away from where we live. Imagine my surprise when I noticed the plaster Scripture wall plaque hanging in our bathroom. It looked exactly like one I had painted when a teenage camper at a Christian camp. The same non-artistically done painting. When I looked at the back of the plaque, I could hardly believe what I saw – the same stained fingerprints I had unintentionally left behind when finishing it. It was my plaque! I remembered selling it in a garage sale several years before. I wrote a letter telling the story to the owner of the home hinting that I’d pay her to get it back. She was not interested in my idea. So I don’t have the plaque of my youth, but I did have fun making the story into a scrapbooking page!

    • Oh, my goodness! What a great story, Grace!! That is SO neat that you were able to see it again. (And I think the owner should have given it back to you! But it’s quite a compliment that she liked it so much she wasn’t willing to let it go…even for payment!)

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