SCRUBBING YOUR TROUBLES AWAY by Marisa Masterson

 

Imagine the woman bent, hugely pregnant, over a tub and washboard. What does she think about as she rubs the clothes across the metal ripples? Perhaps about her coming baby?

Recently, my daughter and I went through my granddaughter’s outgrown baby clothes. Stains! My stars, but the stains! We put away the clean items, and I gathered up the spotted garments.

Days later, I stood over the washer I am blessed to have. As I rubbed in a certain product recommended by many on the Internet for set-in stains, I wished for a bar of my grandmother’s lye soap. Memories of that dear woman rubbing a boar’s hair brush across my baby cousin’s clothes came back. I can still see that brush and the yellowish-white soap.

I almost reached for the glass washboard that is a family heirloom. It sits in my basement, unused. (Again, thank you God for my modern washing machine!) Could it be that this outmoded item might remove stains better than my frustrated rubbing did?

But, back to the woman bent across the scrub board? Did women pray while they spent long hours laboring to clean the garments? Maybe a mother would think of each child and send up petitions. Perhaps she solved her problems, sort of talked them out in her mind. A good substitute for a therapist as she rubbed the spots roughly to removed them?

Even when the wringer washer came into being with its handle in the side of the tub for agitating, the lady of the house or washer woman would still need to scrub those stains. That guaranteed long hours devoted to the laundry. Were these women spiritual than a lady who throws clothes in the machine and hurries on to the next thing because they had time to pray? Did they have less anger because they could work it out as they vigorously rubbed the garments?

One thing I know for sure. They were more physically fit than me! I’m exhausted after scrubbing a small batch of stained clothes. And I didn’t need to wring anything out by hand!

I said it before, but it bears saying again. Thank you, Lord, for my washer!

In my new release, Beau's Elegant Bride, Fancy Francy is learning to do laundry while she travels the Oregon Trail. She never expected to be matched with a farmer, Beau. The thought of returning to Chicago teases at her mind. 

“If I stay—”
“Then I love, honor, and protect you. And you’ll learn what you need to know.” He chuckled. “Especially if we settle near someone like Mrs. Crook. She’s already got you makin’ passably good biscuits.”
Francy tipped her head in thought. “That’s true. And she’s gonna show me how to do the laundry once we spend a few days at Fort Kearny.”
His arms unfolded. As if she were a beacon drawing him closer, 

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A cat, an accident, and a pile of mixed-up letters send a bride to a man she otherwise would never have met. Only time will tell if she and this new marriage can survive the match.
Francine 'Francy' Dinsmore loses the security she's always known with the death of her father. Life so far has treated Francy tenderly and expected very little from her.
Beau LeFevre abandons a hopeless future to venture west. The only thing he needs before he leaves is a wife. When the elegant woman arrives from the matchmaker, he marries her wondering all the while what made the matchmaker send this bride to him.
How can he make a marriage work with this spoiled woman? Life on the trail leads him to believe someone made a mistake!
Will this turn out to be a happy accident and a sound pairing with the only woman who can win his heart?