Divine by Karen Kingsbury

Author:Karen Kingsbury
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Large type books, Washington (D.C.), Fiction - Religious, Christian, Religious & spiritual fiction, Popular American Fiction, Religious - General, Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, Religion, Christian - General, Christian Fiction, Adult, Inspirational, Christian life & practice, General & Literary Fiction, Parables, General, Religious
ISBN: 1414307659
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Published: 2006-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 14

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Mary never got used to the smell. The masked pungency of urine mixed with the constant scent of disinfectant.

Not that it mattered. This was where Grandma Peggy lived, and three times a week before her meetings on Capitol Hill or her counseling with battered women, before checking on the dozen causes she was politically or financially connected with, Mary Madison came to this place.

Orchard Gardens Senior Living Center.

She came for a precious half an hour with her grandmother. The connection between them was stronger than ever, as if God had given them this season to make up for all the years they'd lost. Sometimes they talked about politics and the bills Mary was testifying for. Other times they drifted back to the past, and Grandma Peggy would tell her how often she'd prayed, how many tears she'd cried waiting for God to bring them back together.

"I always knew the Lord would let us find each other one day," her grandma would tell her. "I just wish it would've happened sooner."

Grandma Peggy understood the current legislature Mary was pulling for, the funding for continuation of the national abstinence program. She also knew about the bills Mary had helped pass in the last year, bills that provided income for battered women's shelters and teen recreation centers in low-income areas. Her grandmother had prayed daily for Mary's part in the My Mentor program for disadvantaged and orphaned children, and when it came into being, they'd celebrated quietly together at her bedside.

Her grandma knew about all of it.

Grandma Peggy was sharp and sensitive, splitting her time between lending a sympathetic ear to her friends at Orchard Gardens and seeking God in the quiet of her room on behalf of Mary. The way she'd done all of Mary's life.

Mary's visit that morning would have to be short. She didn't want to keep Emma waiting. She walked quickly down the hall and slowed when she came to room 114. Her grandmother was sleeping, her big brown Bible on her lap. Mary smiled and crossed the room without making a sound. She sat down and studied her grandmother's walls.

She still had Easter cards lined up on the windowsill. One from Esther down the hall and another from a gentleman friend of hers, a man who signed his card Love you, William B.

A few feet away were the framed photos that never left the wall. One of her grandma with her mama—when her mama was in third grade. Another of her mama and her, when she was a newborn. Then there was the photo that had hung in her pink bedroom, the one of herself as a three-year-old.

Mary's gaze returned to the photo of her mother. She studied her eyes, the way they looked happy and full of light. There had been no way to tell back then what the future would hold for Jayne Madison—that she'd turn to drugs and living on the street, or that she'd die without hope or love or redemption.

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