Remembering serenity

Moment of Peace On a warm sunny summer day back in 1954, as I recall. I was nine years old and was very bored that day. There was no one around to play with and my mom and dad were busy working around the yard, so I decided to go for a walk and look for friends to play with. There was a place about two miles away from my home that was owned by the Catholic Church. They ran a home there to care for people who were invalids. Maybe the people there were veterans from World War II or something. I really never did know for sure what they did there. It was a property where you just were not supposed to go. The place was a big old estate, thirty or forty acres of land, and was surrounded by a large, forested area. At the back of the estate was a small cottage where one of the nuns lived with her dog. The dog was a beautiful golden retriever who we called Rex because we really did not know his name. I thought by walking down to the cottage maybe I would find Rex and play with him. Rex alway...