The girl walking toward Wendell Bliss looked almost as sad as his wife. Beautiful girl, she seemed to rearrange herself with a shake as she passed, but she passed by so quickly he couldn't return her small hello.
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Rev. Alison B. Miller, whose fortitude and grace when confronting just such a cancer as Astra Dell's inspired this novel. Astra Dell's college essay quotations and her "Yes" to life attitude are taken from Rev. Miller's sermon "Leap of Faith." Astra Dell, however, is an entirely fictional character and all details of her life, as well as the Siddons School, its community, and their actions, are invented.
For the gift of time, as well as support and affection, thank you to Dorothy Hutcheson, Laura Kirk, John Loughery, Abby Weintraub, and Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop.