Photo by Sue Vincent

It was a hard day.  The hardest.  It was never ending toil, but I had to do, if not for myself, then for them.

The one bright spot is that I didn’t struggle alone.  Silently by my side was my neighbor, the little girl who used to bother me as I did my chores, little no more.  She didn’t have to share this, but there she was.  As, I realized, she always had been.

At the end of the day I looked down at my companion.  Her face glowed in the setting sun.  My heart soared, turned aflame.

“Mary,” I said, “if we survive, will you be my wife?”

The last rays of the day painted her face a bright red.  What was she thinking behind those flaming eyes?

“Of course.”

I took her hand, saying nothing, for nothing needed to be said as we watched…