Miss Wise produced a tissue from the pocket of her dress slacks and handed it to me before continuing. “Dave Foster is a stubborn man. He refused to take my no as an answer when he invited me to church. I finally gave in just so he’d stop showing up at my door. I guess he taught this one beside me to be just as stubborn. Neither one would leave me be until I agreed to forgive my past and to start living.” She gave me a sidelong glance, her thin lips curling into a slight smile. “Austin was fourteen or fifteen when she told me she believed forgiveness and getting over being mad was a gift for ourselves, not for the ones who wronged us. She also said she would be praying for me. I think it’s time for us to return the prayers for her and her family’s sake.”

My eyes were so flooded that I could barely see her walk away and Morty take her place. One blink and two fat tears plopped down my cheeks. It was then that I noticed Morty was dressed down in a plain blue T-shirt and a pair of jeans. His hair lay flat instead of fluffy and feathered. His face even held a shadow from not shaving.

“Dave Foster was the first person in Magnolia to speak to me on a personal level after my brother died. To Dave, I was more than the son of the funeral home owners who lost their other child. I didn’t have to try to stand out to get his attention. He has a knack for noticing people, and never did he just speak in passing but would stop to actually listen.” Morty’s lip wobbled, so he stopped a moment. He shot a look at me and snickered. “And this one . . . this young lady is cut from the same cloth as her father. Shoot, she was there that day Mr. Hal came back to life, yet she still talked to me after that incident. I’ve been made to feel like a nobody most my life, but the Foster family invited me to be a somebody to them. They accepted me as is and have shown me that God does too.”

A muffled sob tumbled free from me as Morty gave me a hug and called for the next witness. All this time I’d looked at myself as an afghan unraveling. Even though I was falling apart in front of these people, the fraying parts were being replaced by a stronger binding.