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"He told us it would be too hard ona baby every year In a way, I think he was right, but Danny Boy stuck and he orth everything So despite the bleeding with this pregnancy, I don’t give up hope" She rolls over and puts her head in my lap and I stroke her hair Outside the , the snow falls and falls

Nove about Patience’s life in Becky’s journal, I am stunned Who could have known the difficulties she’s lived through? I’m stunned and ashamed

How is it that Patience could lead a life of so much pain and still be a beacon of hope, while the loss ofis, it wasn’t just grief There was the guilt, the overwheluilt And it wasn’t just her death There was Teele

"I’ll say the blessing," Daniel announces when our Thanksgiving feast is placed on a table next to Patience’s bed "Lord, we thank you for this bounty and for these friendsAmen" It’s a short prayer and we have a white tablecloth and candles that Patience insisted on We have all dressed up; the -sleeved shirts and ties and Patience and I in our second-best dresses

Ordinarily, we begin our ht Daniel was uess I rong Little Danny folds his hands,a church and then a steeple, and there are tears in Patience’s eyes as she looks at her rounding belly Maybe she’s saying a prayer for her unborn child The fetus is now around twenty-eight weeks, too early yet, ain, tiny white flakes and there are three inches on the ground, but it won’t ao to work on Friday

"Do you want to carve the ham?" Hester asks Blum I’m always surprised when he treats the doctor as if he’s norent companion who’s just lost his voice, rather than a handicapped patient who has lost hisknife and slices the haeon’s hands We also have fried trout froreen beans, mashed potatoes, and a pumpkin pie hipped creaave arden or the farar, and lard, and this pleasesit

"Milk?" Patience asks pouring for everyone I hold out o to work at the CCC ca, but they have the day off too, so unless they get into soans, at least there won’t be any serious accidents

I take in the rooht on the faces of my friends We don’t have h and we are safe in each other’s care

Winter

26

December 15, 1934

The day of Priscilla’s accident did not start out well When I kissed her at breakfast she turned away It was just a husbandly kiss on the cheek, but it offended her somehow and she brushed ?"

"You smell bad," she said, and it hurt me "And I’m sick of you, Isaac"

Priscilla was a very draularly