My Take
DiVoran Lites
Mabel Morgan 16 years old
From last week’s post:
“Even though Dora Bell wrote to the O’Shea address every week, she never got an answer. She was as worried about Mabel as she could possibly be, but she and Mr. Hunter had no idea where to begin looking for her. They started saving small amounts of cash so they could leave the mountain in case they ever found out where she was. “
It was two years before a letter came to the Breckenridge post office and the postmistress walked it over to the hotel where Dora Bell was cleaning a room. The letter written in a shaky hand had a Chicago postmark. Here’s what it said:
“I am in Shekakgo. I work at a bar on skid row, but I can’t make enough muny to come home.” Luv, May Bell.” There was no return address.
As quickly as she could Dora Bell sold the cabin she had lived in for a quarter of a century to a newly arrived prospector. With Dora Bell leaving town, her long-time friend, Mr. Hunter had no reason to stay. Dora Bell grateful for the help and protection of Mr. Hunter packed up, and they caught the train to Chicago.
When they got there they went into every bar on skid row to inquire about Mabel, they met a gypsy-dressed woman who claimed to be a fortune-teller. She demanded money then told them where they could find Mabel. Later, they wondered whether she might have seen Mabel around and had taken advantage of them.
They went where she told them to go and ran into Mabel sitting in an alley under a stair-well with a baby in a box beside her. Mr. O’Shea had not turned out to be a gentleman Dora Bell had thought he was after all.
Somehow they all got jobs and managed to care for the baby until they had enough money to return to Colorado. They lived for a while in Pueblo across from the gasworks. Young Mabel met one of the young men who worked there and after a time of courtship, Mabel and Roger married.
When Roger got a promotion to manage the gasworks in Canon City, they all moved there. A family conference decided that Dora Bell and Daddy Hunter would take Don, the baby boy born in Chicago and rear him as their own child.
Roger and Mabel started their family with Smithy, then they had a girl and named her Dora Jane. Later Mabel had another child and she was named Julia May Bedell.
Roger Bedell, Vera Morgan, Dora Jane Bedell (4) Mabel Bedell, and Dora Bell Hunter
DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn. She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”
Old Things R New 
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