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Pat Ritter. Books


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Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Tue Oct 27, 2015 9:54 pm

'Brilliant - OMR - Stories' - Page 15:

You Are As Young As You Feel

At times I feel as though I’m a teenager. An example was falling in love at fifty-six years of age. This definitely made me think I felt like a teenager again.
My wife of thirty-one years lost her fight with cancer and two years later I met and fell in love with another woman who came into my life. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought it possible. I honestly thought I was destined to be a widower for the remainder of my life.
Love made me feel young and alive. In fact before I met this new person I felt my life was sliding quickly down a dark hole. I saw no future with another person. It was tough to go through the process of grief, sorrow and loss of the love of your life.
When this event happened, falling in love again, I mean, my heart swelled so much it almost burst from my chest. This feeling carried me back in years to when I first fell in love with my wife.
Although I was twenty-three years old and she was nineteen, the first time I saw her was ‘love at first sight’. My mother always told me, ‘you’ll know when the right one comes along,’ and her words rung true.
For the following thirty-two years we loved each other very deeply – it hurt to think we’d ever be separated.
Unfortunately life has many bends and turns and at the age of fifty years old she lost her fight with cancer and departed from my life.
Through this period I felt old and haggard, with no motivation toward life and the future. I struggled to keep going. I felt old.
I’m unaware if there is a God however, there must be a higher power more forceful than us human beings. You see, I needed to ‘get out and meet people’ and on one of my weekly visits to the local café on a Friday morning to have coffee; I met this wonderful warm person who recently lost her husband.
Obviously it must have been fate we met because as soon as I saw her face and heard her voice, my mind flashed back to when I first met my wife all those years ago.
At the end of next month will give us seven years together. I honestly feel I could live on forever and I feel young again, not in mid-sixties but more in mid-thirties. I have much to live for and enjoy each moment of the time I have left.
Word count: 435
TO READ THESE STORIES CLICK ONTO THIS LINK: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/270499
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Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Wed Oct 28, 2015 10:06 pm

'Brilliant - OMR - Stories' - Page 16:

Doctors & Nurses

I want to share with you a story from my personal experiences about doctors and nurses. You see, if I didn’t have a doctor examine me at a particular time in my life, I wouldn’t be here to tell you this tale.
My life was running along quite well, when suddenly my chest filled with fluid and I felt light headed. After awhile I regained my posture and thought no more about what had happened only ten minutes before.
Later in the afternoon after this experience I decided to visit a doctor to see if everything was still working the way it should have been. At the time I considered I didn’t need a doctor and it was only at the persistence of my wife, I made the visit.
In his surgery I didn’t know what to tell him when he asked ‘what my problem was’. I lifted my shirt and he placed his stethoscope on my chest around the region of my heart. His face changed to concern at the same time moving his stethoscope further around the chest region.
‘What’s wrong?’ I said in an alarmed voice.
‘I can’t hear your heart beat.’ He answered.
I’d been told many times I didn’t have a heart but when a doctor tells you, it is time to listen and forget about those remarks made by others.
‘You’re to go directly to hospital – to the emergency department.’ Were his final words before I was whisked out of his surgery and driven to the hospital by my wife?
At the hospital nurses took over, plugging me into a machine. Another doctor stuck a needle into the back of my hand and extracted blood like a vampire. I had no idea what was going on. My mind was a mess from all of the excitement of doctors and nurses fussing over me.
Eventually after three days of being prodded, poked and constantly stabbed by needles I was told my heart had almost stopped and I needed an operation to have a pacemaker implanted.
Another doctor, this time a specialist, Cardiologist, performed the operation and thank goodness everything was a success.
Without this operation I would have passed away in my sleep that night if my wife didn’t persist on me seeing a doctor. That was twenty-two years ago and to think if I hadn’t visited the doctor when I did, I wouldn’t be here to share with you my story. God bless all doctors and nurses for their dedication to their calling.
Word count: 425
TO READ THESE STORIES CLICK ONTO THIS LINK: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/270499
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Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Thu Oct 29, 2015 9:27 pm

'Brilliant - OMR - Stories' - Page 17:

Then There Were Three

Fairy tales have been with us since childhood. Remember those three little pigs whose house was going to be blown down by the big bad wolf.
This version is a little different. In this fairy tale there are five little pigs. It’s a game I normally play with my grandson who is fifteen months old.
He holds his little hand out; I hold it in the palm of my left hand and with my right fingers touch his index finger and say, ‘this little piggy went to market’. His smile and laughter almost takes my breath away.
With the next finger I say, ‘this little piggy stayed home.’ And continue onto the next finger I say, ‘this little piggy had bread and butter,’ and the next, ‘this little piggy had none.’ For the final finger I say, ‘and this little piggy went way, way, way up here,’ travelling my finger along his arm and tickling him on his neck underneath his ear.
His giggle is infectious and I hug him with delight.
When we play this game my mind wonders back to the nursery rhyme ‘three little pigs’. The first pig wanted to build his house of stray and it was blown down by the big bad wolf. The second wanted to build his house of wood and it also got blown down by the big bad wolf. Whilst the third pig built his house of bricks which the wolf huffed and puffed and couldn’t blow his house down.
After the battle of not destroying the third pigs house, the big bad wolf left, then there were three pigs left to live together in the brick house without worrying about the big bad wolf huffing and puffing and blowing their house down.
They all lived in harmony safe and secure from the big bad wolf. Is there a lesson to be learnt from this nursery rhyme?
Word count: 323
TO READ THESE STORIES CLICK ONTO THIS LINK: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/270499
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Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Fri Oct 30, 2015 9:11 pm

'Brilliant - OMR - Stories' - Page 18:

Describe A Story You Like

Since December of last year I now have a kindle reader. It’s one of those e-book reading devices. All I do when I see a book I like to read; is to click onto the website, select the book; and presto the book is electronically downloaded to my kindle reader. I read it like as if it is a printed book but in electronic format.
Daily there are thousands of ebooks downloaded to these devices. When I select an ebook, the cover needs to take my fancy. This particular ebook ‘Sagebrush’ immediately took my attention. It is a western. I read the bio of the author and noticed he was eighty-seven years old and only started writing after he’d had a heart attack and his family bought him a computer.
Wayne ‘Bill’ Dickson is the author. He’s written and published seven books. In his book ‘Sagebrush’ he immediately captured my imagination and attention by the way he wrote his story. Wayne is a very good storyteller.
His main character is Michael, a twelve years old travelling with his parents to make a new life in the wild-west during the eighteen hundreds when Indians attacked them. His parents were killed leaving Michael alone and an orphan. He made a pledge to avenge his parent’s deaths.
Throughout the Indian attack he saw his father being killed by an Indian. His mother killed when an Indian smashed a Tommy-hawk into his mother’s skull. Lucky Michael hid under the overturned wagon and out of sight of the attacking Indians or he would have suffered a similar fate. Each Indian who passed the overturned wagon Michael kept a mental picture of the face and description. They would get their just rewards for killing his parents.
When all was quiet he climbed out from underneath the wagon and buried his parents. Carrying sufficient food and other implements he walked into the bush. After some time he discovered a cave. Here is lived for the next six years growing into a man. His survival based only on his daily hunting for food, listening to bird life and noticing how animals behave.
His strength grew; his skills for hunting increased. It was time to avenge his parent’s deaths. Dressed in a mountain lion skin; he stole through the bush and to the Indian camp. His animal instincts told him what to do and as a hunter, he avenged his parent’s killers by slaughtering those Indians who killed his parents.
Along the way he met an Indian Princess and fell in love. A child was born. Michael pledged to return to take care of his child, but other things happened.
His story concluded happily. He found another love and lived happy for the rest of his life. I was so enthralled by this book I wrote a review and thanked Bill for writing a great and interesting story.
Word count: 487
TO READ THESE STORIES CLICK ONTO THIS LINK: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/270499

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Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Sat Oct 31, 2015 7:31 pm

'Brilliant - OMR - Stories' - Page 19:

I Knew Something Was A-foot

This story takes me back to the early seventies. At the time I was a police officer stationed at Stanthorpe. It was common to work alone, particularly at night.
New England Highway bypassed the township of Stanthorpe weaving its way through Severnlea toward the New South Wales border town of Wallangarra.
Also in those times the role of contacting police was via the local telephone exchange. Before the officer went on patrol, he contacted the telephone exchange to let them know he would be absent from the police station and to hold all telephone calls.
This particular night, without the knowledge of the telephone exchange or the officer-in-charge, I attended a show society meeting. I didn’t let anyone know where I was. This meeting finished and I returned to the police station to find the officer-in-charge at the station, ‘where the bloody hell have you been, there’s been a fatal road accident at Fletcher with an overnighter.’ He screamed at me when I walked into the station.
He appeared upset. ‘Neil is diverting traffic through Eukey. We’re going to the scene.’ He commanded. I stood as if I was a stunned mullet and didn’t know what to say or do.
We drove to the scene along the New England Highway which took us about three quarters of an hour during which time the officer-in-charge never said a word, only looked directly ahead. I was driving. My mind numb, I had no answer only thinking I should’ve attended the meeting in police time.
Rounding a bend, emergency lights flashed, contents of the overnighter spread across the highway. The front of the overnighter truck embedded against the centre wooden pylon of the overhead railway bridge.
I parked the police vehicle in a suitable spot and activated the blue lights. Instantly I identified emergency officers from the Ambulance and Fire Brigade.
Inside of the crashed vehicle was a male – deceased. Members of the emergency services were trying to get him out of the vehicle. He was on the passenger side. Eventually together they moved the front of the vehicle to release the deceased.
‘His foot is missing – go find his foot.’ The officer-in-charge yelled to me. I began a search looking through the darkness with a torch barely able to shine sufficient light to see. A voice called out, ‘I’ve found it.’ I turned and knew something was a foot.
‘Get the foot and put it in the boot of the police car.’ The officer-in-charge, with a lower voice requested. I placed the foot still encased in a boot in the rear compartment of the police vehicle. Unfortunately a couple of days later I’d forgotten about the foot and couldn’t work out the smell in the police vehicle. I opened the boot to find the foot. It’d been there since the night of the road accident.
Word Count: 481
TO READ THESE STORIES CLICK ONTO THIS LINK: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/270499
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Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Sun Nov 01, 2015 9:09 pm

'Brilliant - OMR - Stories' - Page 20:

Gossip

As Colleen Smart would say in the television programme ‘Home And Away’ ‘tell Marge Wilkins and the whole Bay will know about it in no time’. She should talk. Colleen is noted for her spreading gossip.
This is similar where I live. We have about one hundred residents in the village and if you want anything spread quickly than tell one of the residents and presto before ten minutes is gone the informal grapevine is alive and well, telephones are ringing, e-mails are buzzing across the airways and the word spreads faster than a bush fire with a hundred mile gale behind it.
What makes people gossip? I suppose to make themselves feel important. Throughout my life I’ve lived in many towns and communities and each one has there town gossiper.
I remember once many years ago a gossip started in a small community where I lived of certain men meeting once a week down by the local river and getting up to mischief. It was a slip of the tongue how this news broke however the damage to the men concerned had a devastating effect on their families and businesses and the town itself.
Actually it all started as a joke, this joke got out of control and when one thing lead to another names were mentioned. These names were connected to some of the senior business people in the town.
Suspicion spread like wild-fire and before anyone knew three of the mentioned people were arrested and charged with offences relating to the gossip. In the end one of the business people accepted guilt whilst the others walked free. They never recovered from the blame and shame of the gossip.
I well remember the morning after Queensland Police Force was shown on the television programme ‘Four Corners’ about being corrupt. Immediately the gossiping began and naturally my thoughts went to some individuals whom I thought could have been corrupt. I’ll tell you how ridiculous I felt. The people who I thought may have been corrupt weren’t; and the ones whom I thought weren’t corrupt, ended up being the corrupt ones.
It didn’t matter who you bumped into along the corridors each was viewed with suspicion until everything came out in the wash through the Fitzgerald Inquiry. I still can’t believe what happened. Every police officer was under suspicion of being corrupt whether they were or not.
Unfortunately gossiping will never be stamped out and we’ve got to learn to live with it. With some people it makes their day when they gossip.
Word count: 427
TO READ THESE STORIES CLICK ONTO THIS LINK: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/270499
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Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Mon Nov 02, 2015 8:47 pm

'Brilliant - OMR - Stories' - Page 21:

Know It All

‘So you think you know it all.’ My father spoke these words standing over me; they cut through my heart like a hot knife slicing butter, his eyes dark and angry. ‘You think you can do a better job than I can?’
My mother and I had returned from a holiday in Sydney. She was very sick and the holiday was meant to give her peace. We had a wonderful time staying with friends giving her an opportunity to do what she wanted to do with no pressure.
When we arrived home, I don’t know what my father meant when soon after he went into one of his raging sessions. To me it was uncalled for and totally irresponsible. What hurt me most was he didn’t recognise what I’d done for my mother and I don’t think he cared.
‘So you think you can run this house better?’ His words blasted into my face, scrunching into a shape to frighten everyone, including my mother and sisters. I hated violence and moreso confrontation, particularly with my own father. I couldn’t understand his motives. In my mind I thought perhaps he could’ve been jealous or on the other hand alcohol may have affected his mind to such a degree he couldn’t control his emotions.
What was done – was done. He stormed out of the house, slammed the front door in the process, stamped down the steps and the last noise we heard was the car being reversed from the driveway.
Four of us stood in the bedroom and the tension lifted as soon as my father left the house. My mother almost collapsed on the bed, she looked exhausted.
Emotion filled my mind with ‘what do I do now’. I didn’t know it all but I did know when something wasn’t right and it needed to be fixed. How was I going to fix this problem?
Ten minutes later my father returned; and with tongue in cheek I said, ‘you weren’t away long.’
From that moment onward we dare not to speak with one another. He kept to himself and didn’t speak with me to work out what actually happened. I knew in my mind it couldn’t have been me because I was a ‘know it all’ because in actual fact – I didn’t know it all.
At the time I was twenty-one years of age and discovered along the journey there is much to learn before ‘you know it all’ - if ever.
Word count: 417
TO READ THESE STORIES CLICK ONTO THIS LINK: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/270499
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