After breakfast, Miriam took out her violin to play for her daughter. She’d been trembling too greatly throughout the first day to even attempt it. “This is a lullaby I used to play for you when you were a baby. It was your favorite.” Miriam lifted the instrument that was so much a part of her and played from the wellspring of love in her soul. Elisheva didn’t move as she listened, her dark eyes shining. She remembers. Her heart remembers.

“Play more!” she said, clapping her hands when Miriam finished. Rietje and the residents of Meijers House had done the same. Music had power to heal. Miriam had felt dead inside for so long, but music provided the bridge back to living. She played everything she knew by heart, losing track of time as she filled in all the years that had been lost. At last she stopped, exhausted in body and soul, aware of where she was again. Her beloved daughter was still sitting with rapt attention.

“She has always loved music,” Lena said. “In the first months she was here and missing you so terribly, singing to her was the only way to soothe her to sleep.”

Lena loves her too, Miriam realized. And she was grateful.

Suddenly Ans’s brother began shouting from outside, “Ans! Mama! Everyone, come here!” Miriam hurried outside with the others. Her heart stopped when she saw what the fuss was about.

Avi!

He was climbing off Professor Huizenga’s decrepit bicycle, letting it fall to the ground, running forward to embrace her. Neither of them could stand. They fell to their knees, wrapped in each other’s arms. How she’d dreamed of this day, fearing in her darkest moments that it would never come. Avi was alive! He was alive! Their daughter was alive! And for the very first time in many years, Miriam heard the song of the wind in the trees and the birds singing praises to God.

EPILOGUE

FALL 1945

Lena stuck a fork into one of the potatoes bubbling in a pot on the stove. Almost done. She was grateful to have food to cook again, her root cellar full after a good fall harvest. She crossed to the sink, glancing out the window as she passed it, watching for Ans. Avraham and Wim were returning from the cow pasture with Bep riding on her abba’s shoulders. She was comfortable with him now, after these past few months together. They had all laughed when Avi had shown them that he could milk a cow. “I learned how while hiding out on a farm like this one,” he’d said proudly. How good it was to see their family reunited and thriving again.

“I finished setting the table,” Maaike said. “May I go outside and watch for Ans?”

Lena smoothed Maaike’s fair hair from her face. “Yes, you may. And be sure to let me know when she gets here.”