Cindy assured her that it was nothing to worry about. “I guess Mammi Eliza just said something about needing to get to a stone wall. She seemed real insistent.”

Anna perked up her ears. “She said that?”

Cindy nodded. “Wanita said Mammi kept repeatin’ it while rockin’ in her chair, awful anxious.”

Mamm sighed. “She’s terribly confused.”

“What do you think she meant by it?” Anna asked.

“Wanita couldn’t get Mammi to say anything more than that.” Cindy shook her head. “It was downright peculiar. Usually she doesn’t fix her mind on things like that.”

“True.” Anna was intrigued. It’s no coincidence, she decided.

Glancing at the day clock, Sadie realized that Molly had been sleeping for an hour. Not wanting to disturb her, she stood at the back screen door, where she could see Glen reading now to himself while Eva napped, her double chin resting on her chest, her mouth crumpled closed.

Sadie stepped outside and motioned for her husband. “Do you think we should wait on supper?” she asked, explaining that Molly was sound asleep in Anna’s room.

Glen headed inside with her and looked at the clock. “Well, it’s already suppertime.”

Nodding, Sadie said she could wait another half hour, if he could.

“S’pose so,” he said quietly, looking out the door at Eva, still dozing. “She wasn’t makin’ much sense today. It’s hard to see her like this.”

Sadie recalled her time on the porch with them earlier, before coming in to put the finishing touches on supper. “We really ought to get more help for Molly than just one day off each week,” she suggested. “Molly brought up that she’s really strugglin’. Poor thing’s tuckered out.”

Glen touched her elbow. “Well, you can’t keep adding things to your day, dear.”

He means at my age, she thought.

A smile crept across his bearded face, and he reached for her hand. “We’ll get more help for Molly. I’ll spread the word to the family.”

Sadie looked into his dear face, her heart swelling with love.

Sunday afternoon, Anna took Mamm with her to Wanita’s. On the drive over, Anna mentioned that she hoped her most recent visits with Mammi Eliza hadn’t caused any anxiety. “You know, because she seems to connect me with Strasburg now.”

“I don’t think you should be concerned about that,” Mamm said, clutching her purse in the front passenger seat. “I really don’t.”

“Well, she’s been talking about a stone wall ever since I first said I was going to Strasburg. And it seems like it might have upset her.”

Her mother nodded. “True, but according to the doctor, her failing memory has more to do with the progression of the disease than anything we say to her. At this point, the way she remembers personal experiences might just be faulty.”