AWAKENED BY GRACE
By Darlene West
The seed for Awakened by Grace was planted in my heart back in college when I was in my Modernism period classroom. My English professor assigned the romance novel Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. A story written by a female author, in third person, with a masculine voice. When I completed that novel, it was at that point that I had decided I would write a novel in third person from the viewpoint of amale, but it would be literary fiction, and not a romance. That’s when the name Professor Franklin Franklyn had risen in my heart.
Throughout my life, I have been a people watcher, especially keeping a watchful eye on my older sister. By watching her, I learned from her mistakes, that is, not to make the same ones. I love people. Growing up and working in the restaurant business, I found it amazing how much I learned from customers: through their stories, their actions, appearances, and even what they had eaten. Along with real life events and my years of people watching, I was able to pull it all together to write Awakened by Grace, but the subject story line arose when I learned of the need for a story that addresses self-condemnation, chronic grief, and hopelessness.
I was inspired through the people I met while street evangelizing and bringing the Word of God to those in mental hospitals. That was when my heart was touched by so many Christians and non-Christians, alike, who suffered from Self-Condemnation and/or Chronic Grief. When I sat down to begin Awakened by Grace, many of those suffering people’s faces were still in my heart, and Professor Franklin Franklyn’s story was created. But some have asked me why I wrote a fiction story about these issues rather than non-fiction.
As an adult educator, story telling was the most effective teaching tool that I had in my bag of teaching/learning tools. For an example, once while I was teaching in an adult Teaching English as a Second Language class, I told the story of Frederic Douglas to a group of Russian speaking adult learners. While I told the story, I focused on the word emancipation. The next class time, one of my students, who was in the USA for a mere three weeks, raised his hand. He said, “When I learn English, I will be emancipated.” Not only did he learn the word, but he learned how to apply it to himself. That’s what story telling does.
If you hear a story or read a story that you can relate to, it can help you apply it to your life situation.
It’s so different than attending a class or reading a book on the strategies of living with chronic grief. I call that memorization and regurgitation, meaning you forget what you regurgitate, and relating, in my belief, is much more difficult.
As I wrote Awakened by Grace, my hopes were that those with similar issues of hopelessness, could relate to my fictional professor. It was my intent to give my audience hope, even in their hopeless situation. But most of all, I intended to present our loving God in a way that brings His tender mercies and grace to the forefront, rather than a mean, disciplined God, causing tragedies.
After the tragic death of his wife, Katie, Professor Franklin Franklyn blames himself. Filled with anguish, he walks away from his family and removes himself from all social interactions, which augments his suffering. But soon after the second anniversary of his wife’s death, his self-imposed reclusive lifestyle is interrupted by an unplanned visit from his eight-year-old granddaughter, Maggie. From that point on, Maggie’s faith-filled answered prayers manifest before Franklin’s eyes. As the two experience God-led divine appointments, Maggie encourages new people to become part of Franklin’s life. In spite of all Franklin witnesses, he finds it difficult to let go of his guilt and move on without his wife.
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Darlene West has a bachelor’s degree in English with a writing minor in the concentration of fiction, as well as a master’s in adult education. Darlene is a retired corporate developer, program designer, evaluator, training needs assessor, and curriculum specialist. Though she grew up in and loved the restaurant business, her favorite regular job was being a Christian radio disc jockey in Champlain, New York. She loves being a wife, mother, and especially a granny.
