The Devoted by Suzanne Woods Fisher

Author:Suzanne Woods Fisher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Amish—Fiction;Christian fiction;Love stories;FIC053000;FIC042040;FIC027020
ISBN: 9781441245441
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2016-08-26T04:00:00+00:00

It was a good death. The best.

Katrina and Andy, Birdy and David, and Dok stayed with Thelma through her last hour. David read Psalm 90 aloud, Thelma’s favorite, the only psalm written by Moses. As she died, they were all able to be with her, touching her. And God was with them.

When he finished reading the psalm, he looked up and realized that Thelma was unmoving, too still to be sleeping.

Katrina knelt beside the old woman and touched her cheek. “Oh, Thelma, I’ll miss you.”

Yes. Yes, David thought, fighting back the sting of tears in his eyes, she would be dearly missed.

As the undertaker removed Thelma’s body from her home, an osprey circled above the hilltop, giving its distinctive cry. Birdy said she thought it was a special gift from God, provided as a benediction for a life lived well.

Three days later, Thelma Beiler’s funeral took place on a beastly hot, utterly breezeless day. The little Amish church of Stoney Ridge stopped their daily obligations and responsibilities to acknowledge the passing of a fine woman.

After the funeral, while everyone gathered back at Moss Hill for a meal, David offered to rock Katrina’s baby to sleep in a back bedroom. He tucked the baby into his crib, then sat on the bed, not ready yet to return to the gathering. It was David’s third funeral that year, but the loss of Thelma hit him deeply. She’d always had more confidence in him than he had in himself.

After a while, Birdy came in and quietly sat beside him. He took her hand and held it, unable to speak. “All these people had their time to grieve, David,” she said softly, rubbing his back with her free hand. “Now it’s your turn.”

He tried to hold back his tears, then gave in, let them come. For the first time in a long, long time, David wept.

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