March 15

Gizella 2017
Gizella’s Gift of God

By: Rita Gehmun

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Once upon a time......

There was a woman named Gizella.
She was very beautiful, and she had long, wavy red hair that
flowed down to her knees.
She had brilliant green eyes and soft rosebud lips.

And she was very, very quiet.....

She did not say much to anyone.
She married young and her husband has 4 beautiful children.

All day, every day, Gizella worked for her family...... cooking,
cleaning, teaching her children...... and loving her husband,
Roland.
Her husband's name was Roland.

Roland was a good man...... and this makes a difference in all

marriages...... but Gizella would have loved him, even if he was
not as good as he was.......
One day, Roland was out on the river in his boat, enjoying the
evening air and the stars coming out in the brilliant white night
overhead.

He was enjoying himself so much that he allowed his boat to

float further down the river than was good...... further down
the river was many rapids and turbulent waters....
Soon his boat was in the bad, wild waters and Roland was
pulled beneath the water.
He died.
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For many hours, the villagers looked for him, and it wasn't until
two days later that his body was found.... barely
recognizable..... On the banks of the river a long way away.....
Gizella helped her children grieve for their father.

Gizella held her children every night and comforted them and
told them stories about their father so that they could all
remember him and what kind of good man he was.
Finally, after a couple of years, things got back to normal.
Gizella did not speak much, still.

She was still very, very quiet.

Every year, she raised her children as they grew and learned
about life and became strong young adults.
Still, Gizella remained young and pure and beautiful...... long
wavy red hair that flowed down to her knees......

Finally, all of her children had left home because they were
adults now and had their own lives.
Gizella then began building onto her house.
She worked very hard every morning, noon and evening.....
Every day....
She gathered wood and mud and bricks and she built onto her
small house until it was very large and grand.
She spent months and years doing this, every day, all the time...
hard at work....
Until it was perfect.
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Her hands and knees and arms and legs were very badly
scraped and bruised and calloused after this.
But Gizella was not done.

Gizella wrapped up all of her clothes and food and packed it on

a donkey.
She began walking, leading her donkey.....
Her home was many hundreds of miles away from the sea, but
she began walking to the ocean...
She worked in every village for her food and a place to rest at
night.
She worked for extra food for her journey between villages.....
She worked and walked.
Worked and walked.
Worked and walked.
About two thirds of the way through her trip, her donkey died.
Gizella simply wrapped more of her clothes around her and
wore them around her body and kept walking.
Finally, after two more years, she arrives at the ocean.

She looked around the shore of the ocean, looking for a

particular valley.
This was a special valley, and no human ever came there.
Every human was afraid of this valley, because there was much
thunder and lightning over it, and many storms rained all
around it.

Finally, Gizella found the valley beside the ocean...... the Valley
of the Gods.......
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It was true..... There was a huge thunderstorm over the valley,

and there was a half mile wide rain storm all around it..... It
never stopped......

Gizella looked in a rain puddle beside the storm.

Her beauty had finally faded.
Her long red hair was finally gray.
Her smooth, perfect skin was finally wrinkled and gray.
Her bright green eyes were sad and tired.
She was a little bit stooped from being old and tired and so, so
very weary.
Gizella looked into the storm ahead of her.
And began walking.....
Gizella walked through the rain and through the storm..... And
arrived on the other side in the Valley of the Gods.....
The Valley was warm and wet and green..... So beautiful and
the sun always shone here, inside the storm.....
It was a magical place, where male gods worked in the warm,
tilled earth and grew beautiful plants.... and the female gods
woven beautiful colorful threads of Life on their looms for
humanity to have plenty of Beauty and Life in their world....
And child gods played and laughed in the fields beside their
fathers, bringing home long strands of soft Life to their mother
to dye and weave on their looms.

Gizella walked through the Valley of the Gods..... And all the
gods looked at her and smiled and followed her into the center
of town......
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She stood on a large rock in the center of town, and looked

down at all the gods around her.....
And Gizella finally had many things to say.
She said "I have paid a price, and I want a gift in return"
The gods smiled up at her and said "Tell us. Tell us."
Gizella said, "I have raised my husband's children to adulthood.
I have nurtured and care for the children of Roland and I have
given them all I had."
Then she said "I have built a beautiful palace from the small
house I once had."
Then she said, "I have worked and traveled and worked and
traveled for a long time."
And finally Gizella said "I have given all of my beauty back to
the gods."
"As you see, my hair is gray now. My skin is old and tired. My
knees and feet and hands are calloused from much hard work."
The gods all said "Yes, you have given us many things."
Gizella said "Yes, I have."
"And now I want payment in return."
The gods were silent, waiting.

Gizella drew herself up to her full height, and she said loudly, "I
want 5 more days with my husband, Roland"
.....and the gods stood silent.
Stared all around at them. Gizella was silent. The gods were
silent.
Bright golden light filled the air.
Bright golden light became so bright that it blinded Gizella. She
could not see anything because the light was so bright.
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And then the light finally faded.

And she was standing back in her home...... the home she had
built into a palace.....

Her hair was red again, and she was as if she was 20 years old
again.....
And there stood Roland in front of her.....
For five days, Gizella enjoyed her gift from the gods......
On the sixth day, a deer appeared to one of her neighbors, and
nibbled his ear until he followed the deer.
The neighbor followed the deer to Gizella's house.....
He knocked and knocked and nobody answered.
Finally, he broke down the door.....
Gizella was dead on the floor, her bright red hair all around her
and a smile on her face and flowers in her hand.... picked for
her that morning by Roland.....

The End.