Lyssa had met Ruth Ormand one day while working as a volunteer for a school fund raiser being held at their local fair grounds. It was a fund raiser for her granddaughters school to raise money for new band uniforms. The uniforms the kids currently had were more then twenty years old, most of them having some sort of mending repair somewhere on them from twenty years of use.
Ruth had sat on the school board for fifteen years. Her only son had been a band member when he attended school in their small town of Charlotte before he had been killed by a hit and run driver when he was seventeen years old. He and a friend were riding their bikes back to their homes after band practice that day. They were getting ready for their homecoming game that Friday night, so it was practice every night after school leading up to the game.
A dozen or more eye witness's saw the accident, all reporting the same facts to the police officers who had been called to the scene. A old Chevy pickup, red in color with the tailgate missing had hit the boys. The description of the driver was of a man wearing a dark colored ball cap, having a full beard, wearing a green plaid shirt, probably flannel considering it was late October. They had all guessed his age to be somewhere between late forties to late fifties, nobody had recognized him as being a local resident.
Within ten minutes of the accident being reported the city police had contacted all County and State Police Posts with the APB (all points bulletin) to be on the lookout for the truck that had fled the scene. All major highways and secondary roads leading out of Charlotte were being covered yet they never found the truck.
Ruth's son had died instantly at the scene and for that she had always been thankful, his friend hadn't been so lucky.
Paul had massive head injuries along with numerous broken bones throughout his body. Four days after the accident the doctors declared him brain dead, he had no brain activity at all.
His parents had decided to end all life support knowing that their son would never come out of the coma he was in and if by some miracle he did, he would be a vegetable the rest of his life and they didn't want that for their son. Two days after life support had stopped he passed away quietly.
Ruth and her husband had both been only children, both of their parents had passed away years ago. When their son had died it had ended their family line with no other relatives left living besides Ruth. Her husband had passed away three years after their son had died from a massive heart attack.
Lyssa had been one of the volunteers who had helped set up the huge barn and grounds for all the activities that had been planned for the day.
They had a huge yard sale where all residents and business owners had donated things for the yard sale, all of the proceeds of the sale would go towards the purchase of the uniforms.
They had contracted a small amusement company that had set up a small carnival at the rear of the fair grounds. They had two game booths with the usual carnival prizes that all proceeds went to the school as well.
The local golf course had arranged for area golfers to pay a fifty dollar entrance fee for a chance to win a new Dodge Durango from the local Dodge dealer. Twenty five dollars of the entry fee would be donated to the school with the rest going to cover the costs of the carts being used. Anyone who shot a hole in one in a regular eighteen hole game would get the new Dodge Durango.
Bingo was scheduled to start at six pm with all sales for cards, specials, and refreshments going to the school. To end the day and thank all those who had volunteered to help and all those who supported the fund raiser by coming they had a fireworks display at ten thirty.
Lyssa had worked closely with Ruth for months preparing for all the events and had become good friends over those months. The school had ended up raising more then fifty thousand dollars. They were able to buy all new uniforms as well as make some very needed repairs to the bleachers, refreshment stand and the outdoor bathrooms got updated. There would be no reason for local government to ask for higher taxes the following year to make those repairs.
Ruth's husband had owned a small tool and die business that had employed around a hundred and ten employees from the area. Her husband had a good business head and through some very good investments they had become very wealthy over the years.
Ruth made annual donations to various charities in the small community and was especially proud of having set up what she had called Safe Haven for all area children of working parents or those children who needed a safe place to be if their home environments were less then loving.
She hated anyone to refer to the children as "latch key kids." Safe haven was not that at all, it not only provided a safe place for children of low income families to be until their parents got out of work, who might not otherwise be able to afford child care, but also for those kids who were neglected at home.
She had three regular nurses who were on staff along with many others who donated eight hours of their time a month to Safe Haven. Even children who were ill were taken care of in a special section of Safe haven. Parents would not have to miss work to take care of a sick child.
She had two women who ran the kitchen, both were dieticians, they made sure that the three meals a day that was provided to each child was healthy and good for them. She had arranged with the local dairy to provide for free the daily deliveries of milk. Area grocery stores donated vegetables and canned goods each month, the area farmers all donated pigs, cows and chickens that were all slaughtered and packaged then kept in the three huge freezers Ruth had donated herself.
Ruth was so protective of the children who came to Safe Haven that during the slaughter of the animals each year members of the food and drug association, USDA inspectors and national health departments were there to oversee that everything was done correctly and above the national standards.
The first five years after she had established Safe Haven she used to hold a fund raiser once a year in New York to raise funds to pay for those who worked there and the upkeep of the building and facilities. She was tired of all the fund raising and all that it entailed so she came up with what she called "Contracts From The Heart".
She asked each person or company to sign a five year guaranteed donation contract to give a set amount that they offered each year for five years. At the end of the fifth year to thank them for their support and to try to get them to continue with that support for another five years she would throw a huge thank you party for all those who were contract donators.
For the past three years she had arranged for a ten day cruise to various parts of the world for her supporters. They had taken an Alaskan cruise, one to Aruba and last year, the Greek Isles.
She had met Lyssa when she volunteered to help with the preparations for the school fund raiser. They had hit it off immediately, she loved Lyssa's straight forwardness and the genuine love she held for all children and animals. Another thing she liked about Lyssa is that although she had very little, what she did have she was proud of and not ashamed of either.
Lyssa was fifty four years old, fourteen years younger then Ruth who was sixty eight. Her hair was a medium blond color spattered with gray. The whole effect made her hair look like it had been streaked professionally at a salon. Ruth was positive that Lyssa had no idea how attractive her hair was or Lyssa herself for that matter.
